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THE 



NIGHT SIDE OF NATURE 



OR 



GHOSTS AND GHOST SEERS 



BY 



CATHERINE CROWE 

AUTHORESS OF " SUSAN HOPLEY," " LILLY DAWSON," ETC. ETC. 






" Thou com'st in such a questionable shape, 
That I will speak to thee 1" — Hamlet. 



f/& 




LONDON 
GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS 

THE BROADWAY, LUDGATE 
NEW YORK:., 416 BROOME STREET 

1. 



Pv 






By MRS. CROWE. 



Two Shillings each, boards. 
SUSAN HOPLEY. 
LINNY LOCKWOOD. 
THE NIGHT SIDE OF NATURE. 



THE 



NIGHT SIDE OF NATURE. 



CHAPTER L 
INTRODUCTION 



* Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God, and that the Spirit 
of God dwelleth in you ?" — 1 Con. iii. 6. 

Most persons are aware that the Greeks and Romans 
entertained certain notions regarding the state of the 
soul, or the immortal part of inan, after the death of 
the body, which have been generally held to be purely 
mythological. Many of them, doubtless, are so; and of 
these I am not about to treat; but amongst their con- 
ceptions, there are some which, as they coincide with 
the opinions of many of the most enlightened persons 
of the present age, it may be desirable to consider more 
closely. I allude here particularly to their belief in the 
tripartite kingdom of the dead, According to this 
system, there were the Elysian fields, a region in which 
a certain sort of happiness was enjoyed; and Tartarus, 
the place of puiiishment for the wicked; each of which 
was, comparatively, but thinly inhabited. But there 
was also a mid-region, peopled with innumerable hosts 
of wandering and mournful spirits, who, although under- 
going no torments, are represented as incessantly bewail- 
ing their condition, pining for the life they once enjoyed 
in the body, longing after the things of the earth, ani 
occupying themselves with the same pursuits and ob- 



2 INTRODUCTION. 

jects as had formerly constituted their business or their 
pleasure. Old habits are still dear to them, and they 
cannot snap the link that binds them to the earth. 

]STow, although we cannot believe in the existence of 
Charo:!, the ferryman, Cerberus, the three-headed clog, 
or Alecto, the serpent-haired fury, it may be worth while 
to consider whether the persuasion of the ancients with 
regard to that which concerns us all so nearly, namely, 
the destiny that awaits us when we have shaken off this 
mortal coil, may not have some foundation in truth : 
whether it might not be a remnant of a tradition trans- 
mitted from the earliest inhabitants of the earth, wrested 
by observation from nature, if not communicated from 
a higher source: and also whether circumstances of 
constant recurrence in all ages and in all nations, fre- 
quently observed and recorded by persons utterly igno- 
rant of classical lore, and unacquainted, indeed, with 
the dogmas of any creed but their own, do not, as well 
as various passages in the Scriptures, afford a striking 
confirmation of this theory of a future life; whilst it, 
on the other hand, offers a natural and convenient ex- 
planation of their mystery. 

To minds which can admit nothing but what can be 
explained and demonstrated, an investigation of this 
sort must appear perfectly idle; for whilst the most 
acute intellect or the most powerful logic can throw 
little light on the subject, it is, at the same time — 
though I. have a confident hope that this will not 
always be the case — equally irreducible within the 
present bounds of science; meanwhile experience, ob- 
servation, and intuition, must be onr principal, if not 
our only, guides. Because, in the seventeenth century, 
credulity outran reason and discretion; the eighteenth 
century, by a natural reaction, flung itself into an oppo- 
site extreme. Whoever closely observes the signs of 
the times, will be aware that another change is ap- 
proaching. The contemptuous scepticism of the last 
age is yielding to a more humble spirit of inquiry; and 



INTRODUCTION. 3 

there is a large class of persons amongst the most en- 
lightened of the present, who are beginning to believe, 
that much which they had been taught to reject as 
fable, has been, in reality, ill-understood truth, Some- 
what of the mystery of our own being, and oi the 
mysteries that compass us about, is beginning to loom 
upon us — as yet it is true but obscurely; and in the en- 
deavour to follow out the clue they offer, we have but a 
feeble light to guide us. We must grope our way 
through the dim path before us, ever in danger of 
being led into error, whilst we may confidently reckon 
on being pursued by the shafts of ridicule — that weapon 
so easy to wield, so potent to the weak, so weak to the 
wise — which has delayed the births of so many truths, 
but never stifled one. The pharisaical scepticism which 
denies without investigation, is quite as perilous, and 
much more contemptible, than the blind credulity which 
accepts all that it is taught without inquiry; it is, indeed^ 
but another form of ignorance assuming to be know- 
ledge. And by investigation I do not mean the 
hasty, captious, angry notice of an unwelcome fact, 
that too frequently claims the right of pronouncing on 
a question, but the slow, modest, pains-taking examina- 
tion that is content to wait upon nature, and humbly 
follow out her disclosures, however opposed to pre- 
conceived theories, or mortifying to human pride. If 
scientific men could but comprehend how they discredit 
the science they profess, by their despotic arrogance and 
exclusive scepticism, they would surely, for the sake of 
that very science they love, affect more liberality and 
candour. This reflection, however, naturally suggests 
another, namely, do they really love science, or is it not 
too frequently with them but the means to an end? 
Were the love of science genuine, I suspect it would 
produce very different fruits to that which we see 
borne by the tree of knowledge, as it flourishes at 
present; and this suspicion is exceedingly strengthened 
bv the recollection, that amongst the numerous students' 



4 INTKODUCTTON. 

and professors of science I have at different times en- 
countered, the real worshippers and genuine ] overs of 
it, for its own sake, have all been men of the most 
single, candid, unprejudiced, and inquiring minds, 
willing to listen to all new suggestions, and investigate 
all new facts ; not bold and self-sufficient, but humble 
and reverent suitors, who, aware of their own ignorance 
and unworthiness, and conscious that they are yet but 
in the primer of nature's works, do not permit them- 
selves to pronounce upon her disclosures, or set limits 
to her decrees. They are content to admit that things 
new and unsuspected may yet be true; that their own 
knowledge of facts being extremely circumscribed, the 
systems attempted to be established on such uncertain 
data, must needs be very imperfect, and frequently alto- 
gether erroneous; and that it is therefore their duty, as 
it ought to be their pleasure, to welcome as a stranger 
every gleam of light that appears in the horizon, let it 
loom from whatever quarter it may. 

But, alas! poor science has few such lovers! Les 
beaux yeux de sa cassette, I fear, are much more fre- 
quently the objects of attraction than her own fair face ! 

The belief in a God, and in the immortality of what 
we call the soul, is common to all nations; but our own 
intellect does not enable us to form any conception of 
either one or the other. All the information we have 
^n these and kindred subjects is comprised in such hints 
as the Scriptures here and there give us; whatever 
other conclusions we draw must be the result either of 
our intuitions, or of observation and experience. Unless 
founded upon these, the opinion of the most learned 
theologian, or the most profound student of science that 
ever lived, is worth no more than that of any other 
person. They know nothing whatever about these 
inysteries, and all a priori reasoning on them is utterly 
Valueless. The only way, therefore, of attaining any 
glimpses of the truth in an inquiry of this nature, where 
Sur intellect can serve us so little, is to enter on it with 



INTRODUCTION. 5 

the conviction that, knowing nothing, we are not en- 
titled to reject any evidence that may be offered to us, 
till it has been thoroughly sifted, and proved to be 
fallacious That the facts presented to our notice 
appear to us absurd, and altogether inconsistent with 
the notions our intellects would have enabled us to form, 
should have no weight whatever in the investigation. 
Our intellects are no measure of God Almighty's 
designs; and I must say that I do think one of the most 
irreverent, dangerous, and sinful things man or woman 
can be guilty of, is to reject with scorn and laughter any 
intimation which, however strangely it may strike upon 
our minds, and however adverse it may be to our 
opinions, may possibly be showing us the way to one of 
God's truths. Not knowing all the conditions, and 
wanting so many links of the chain, it is impossible lor 
us to pronounce on what is probable and consistent and 
what is not; and this being the case, I think the time is 
ripe for drawing attention to certain phenomena, which, 
under whatever aspect we may consider them, are, 
beyond doubt, exceedingly interesting and curious; 
whilst, if the view many persons are disposed to take of 
them be the correct one, they are much more than this. 
I wish also to make the English public acquainted with 
the ideas entertained on these subjects by a large pro- 
portion of German minds of the highest order. It is a 
distinctive characteristic of the thinkers of that country, 
that, in the first place, they do think independently and 
courageously, and, in the second, that they never shrink 
from promulgating the opinions they have been led to 
form, however new, strange, heterodox, or even absurd, 
they may appear to others. They do not succumb, as 
people do in this country, to the fear of ridicule, nor are 
they in danger of the odium that here pursues those who 
deviate from established notions; and the consequence is 
that, though many fallacious theories and untenable 
propositions may be advanced, a great deal of new truth 
is struck out from the collision, and in the result, as 



6 INTRODUCTION-. 

must always be the case, what is true lives and is esta- 
blished, and what is false dies and is forgotten. Bui 
here in Britain our critics and colleges are in suclj 
haste to strangle and put down every new discovery 
that does not emanate from themselves, or which is no* 
a fulfilling of the ideas of the day, but which, being 
somewhat opposed to them, promises to be troublesome 
from requiring new thought to render it intelligibly 
that one might be induced to suppose them divested of all 
confidence in this inviolable law; whilst the more impor- 
tant, and the higher the results involved may be, the 
more angry they are with those who advocate them. They 
do not quarrel with a new metal or a new plant, and 
even a new comet or a new island stands a fair chance 
of being well received; the introduction of a planet 
appears, from late events, to be more difficult, whilst 
phrenology and mesmerism testify that any discovery 
tending to throw light on what most deeply concerns 
us, namely, our own being, must be prepared to en- 
counter a storm of angry persecution. And one of the 
evils of this hasty and precipitate opposition is, that the 
passions and interests of the opposers become involved 
in the dispute; instead of investigators, they become 
partisans; having declared against it in the outset, it is 
important to their petty interests that the thing shall 
not be true; and they determine that it shall not, if 
they can help it. Hence these hasty, angry investiga- 
tions of new facts, and the triumph with which failures 
are recorded; and hence the wilful overlooking of the 
axiom that a thousand negatives cannot overthrow the 
evidence of one affirmative experiment. I always 
distrust those who have declared themselves strongly in 
the beginning of a controversy. Opinions which, how- 
ever rashly avowed, may have been honest at first, may 
have been changed for many a long day before they are 
retracted. In the mean time the march of truth is 
obstructed, and its triumph is delayed; timid minds are 
alarmed; those who dare not or cannot think for them- 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

selves are subdued; there is much needless suffering 
incurred, and much good lost; but the truth goes quietly 
on its way, and reaches the goal at last. 

With respect to the subjects I am here going to treat 
of, it is not simply the result of my own reflections and 
convictions that I am about to offer. On the contrary, 
I intend to fortify my position by the opinions of many 
other writers; the chief of whom will, for the reasons 
above given, namely, that it is they who have prin- 
cipally attended to the question, be Germans. I am 
fully aware that in this country a very considerable 
number of persons lean to some of these opinions, and 
I think I might venture to assert that I have the 
majority on my side, as far as regards ghosts — for it is 
beyond a doubt that many more are disposed to believe 
than to confess — and those who do confess are not few. 
The deep interest with which any narration of spiritual 
appearances bearing the stamp, or apparent stamp, of 
authenticity is listened to in every society, is one proof 
that, though the fear of ridicule may suppress, it cannot 
extinguish that intuitive persuasion, of which almost 
every one is more or less conscious. 

I avow that, in writing this book, I have a higher 
aim than merely to afford amusement. I wish to 
engage the earnest attention of my readers, because I 
am satisfied that the opinions I am about to advocate, 
seriously entertained, would produce very beneficial 
results. We are all educated in the belief of a future 
state, but how vague and ineffective this belief is with 
the majority of persons, we too well know; for although, 
as I have said above, the number of those who are what is 
called believers in ghosts, and similar phenomena, is verv 
large, it is a belief that they allow to sit very lightly on 
their minds. They feel that the evidence from within 
and from without is too strong to be altogether set aside, 
Out they have never permitted themselves to weigh the 
lignificance of the facts. They are afraid of that bug- 
bear, Superstition — a title of opprobrium which it i$ 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

very convenient to attach to whatever we do not believe 
ourselves. They forget that nobody has a right to call 
any belief superstitions, till he can prove that it is 
unfounded. Now, no one that lives can assert that the 
re-appearance of the dead is impossible; all he has a 
right to say is that he does not believe it; and the 
interrogation that should immediately follow this de- 
claration is, " Have you devoted your life to sifting all 
the evidence that has been adduced on the other side 
from the earliest periods of history and tradition ?" and 
even though the answer were in the affirmative, and 
that the investigation had been conscientiously pursued, 
it would be still a bold inquirer that would think him- 
self entitled to say, the question was no longer open. 
But the rashness and levity with which mankind 
make professions of believing and disbelieving, are, all 
things considered, phenomena much more extraordinary 
than the most extraordinary ghost story that was ever 
related. The truth is, that not one person in a thousand, 
in the proper sense of the word, believes anything; 
they only fancy they believe, because they have never 
seriously considered the meaning of the word and all 
that it involves. That which the human mind cannot 
conceive of, is apt to slip from its grasp like water from 
the hand; and life out of the flesh falls under this 
category. The observation of any phenomena, there- 
fore, which enabled us to master the idea, must neces- 
sarily be extremely beneficial; and it must be remem- 
bered that one single thoroughly well-established instance 
of the re-appearance of a deceased person would not only 
have this effect, but that it would afford a demonstrative 
proof of the deepest of all our intuitions, namely, that 
a future life awaits us. 

Not to mention the modern Germans of eminence 
who have devoted themselves to this investigation, there 
have been men remarkable for intellect in all countries 
who have considered the subject worthy of inquiry. 
Amongst the rest, Plato, Pliny, and Lucien; and io 



INTRODUCTION. . V 

Dur own country, that good old divine, Dr. Henry 
Moore, Dr. Johnson, Addison, Isaac Taylor, and many 
others. It may be objected that the eternally quoted 
case of Nicolai, the bookseller at Berlin, and Dr. 
Ferriar's " Theory of Apparitions," had not then 
settled the question; but nobody doubts that Nicolai's 
y/as a case of disease; and he was well aware of it 
himself, as it appears to me everybody so afflicted is. 
1 was acquainted with a poor widow in Edinburgh who 
suffered from this malady, brought on I believe by 
drinking; but she was perfectly conscious of the nature 
of the illusions, and that temperance and a doctor 
were the proper exorcists to lay the spirits. With 
respect to Dr. Ferriar's book, a more shallow one was 
assuredly never allowed to settle any question; and his 
own theory cannot, without the most violent straining, 
and the assistance cf what he calls coincidences, meet 
even half the cases he himself adduces. That such a 
disease as he describes exists, everybody admits; but I 
maintain that there are hundreds o± cases on record for 
which the explanation does not suffice; and if they have 
been instances of spectral illusion, all that remains to 
be said is, that a fundamental reconstruction of the 
theory of that subject is demanded. 

La Place says, in his " Essay on Probabilities," that 
" any case, however apparently incredible, if it be a 
recurrent case, is as much entitled under the laws of 
induction to a fair valuation, as if it had been more 
probable beforehand." Now no one will deny that the 
case in question possesses this claim to investigation. 
Determined sceptics may, indeed, deny that there exists 
any well-authenticated instance of an apparition; but 
that at present can only be a mere matter of opinion, 
since many persons as competent to judge as them- 
selves maintain the contrary; and in the mean time I 
arraign their right to make this objection till they have 
qualified themselves to do so by a long course of patient 
and honest inquiry; always remembering that every 



10 INTRODUCTION. 

instance of error or imposition discovered and adduced, 
has no positive value whatever in the argument, but as 
regards that single instance; though it may enforce 
upon us the necessity of strong evidence and careful 
investigation. With respect to the evidence, past and 
present, I must be allowed here to remark on tht 
extreme difficulty of producing it. Not to mention 
the acknowledged carelessness of observers, and the 
alleged incapacity of persons to distinguish betwixt 
reality and illusion, there is an exceeding shyness in 
most people who either have seen, or fancied they have 
seen, an apparition, to speak of it at all except to some 
intimate friend; so that one gets most of the stories 
second-hand; whilst even those who are less chary of 
their communications, are imperative against their 
name and authority being given to the public. Besides 
this, there is a great tendency in most people, after 
the impression is over, to think they may have been 
deceived; and where there is no communication or 
other circumstance rendering this conviction impos- 
sible, it is not difficult to acquire it, or at least 
so much of it as leaves the case valueless. The 
seer is glad to find this refuge from the unpleasant 
feelings engendered; whilst surrounding friends, some- 
times from genuine scepticism and sometimes from 
good-nature, almost invariably lean to this explanation 
of the mystery. In consequence of these difficulties, 
and those attending the very nature of the phenomena, 
I freely admit that the facts I shall adduce, as they 
now stand, can have no scientific value; they cannot, 
in short, enter into the region of science at all, still 
less into that of philosophy. Whatever conclusions we 
may be led to form, cannot be founded on pure induction. 
We must confine ourselves wholly within the region of 
opinion; if we venture beyond which we shall assuredly 
founder. In the beginning, all sciences have been bu~ 
a collection of facts, afterwards to be examined, com- 
pared, and weighed by intelligent minds. To the vulgar 



INTRODUCTION. II 

who do not see the universal law which governs the 
universe, everything out of the ordinary course of 
events is a prodigy; but to the enlightened niind there 
are no prodigies, for it perceives that both in the moral 
and the physical world there is a chain of uninterrupted 
connexion; and that the most strange and even appa- 
rently contradictory or supernatural fact or event will 
be found, on due investigation, to be strictly dependent 
on its antecedents. It is possible that there may be a 
link wanting, and that our investigations may conse- 
quently be fruitless; but the link is assuredly there,, 
although our imperfect knowledge and limited vision 
cannot find it. 

And it is here the proper place to observe, that, in 
undertaking to treat of the phenomena in question, I 
do not propose to consider them as supernatural; on 
the contrary, I am persuaded that the time will come, 
when they will be reduced strictly within the bounds 
of science. It was the tendency of the last age to 
reject and deny everything they did not understand; I 
hope it is the growing tendency of the present one to 
examine what we do not understand. Equally disposed 
with our predecessors of the eighteenth century to 
reject the supernatural, and to believe the order of 
nature inviolable, we are disposed to extend the bounds 
of nature and science, till they comprise within their 
limits of space all the phenomena, ordinary and extra- 
ordinary, by which we are surrounded. Scarcely a 
month passes that we do not hear of some new and 
important discovery in science ; it is a domahi in which 
nothing is stable; and every year overthrows some of 
the hasty and premature theories of the preceding ones; 
and this will continue to be the case as long as scientific 
men occupy themselves each with his own subject, 
without studying the great and primal truths — what 
the French call Les verites meres — which link the wholo 
together. Meantime, there is a continual unsettling. 
Truth, if it do not emanate from an acknowledged 

B 



12 INTRODUCTION. 

authority, is generally rejected; and error, if it do, is 
as often accepted; whilst, whoever disputes the received 
tneory, whatever it be — we mean especially that adopted 
by the professors of colleges — does it at his peril. But 
there is a day yet brooding in the bosom of time, when 
the sciences will be no longer isolated; when we shall 
no longer deny, but be able to account for phenomena 
apparently prodigious ; or have the modesty, if we 
cannot explain them, to admit that the difficulty arises 
solely from our own incapacity. The system oi cen- 
tralization in statistics seems to be of doubtful advan- 
tage, but a greater degree of centralization appears to 
be very much needed in the domain of science Some 
improvement in this respect might do wonders, particu- 
larly if reinforced with a slight infusion of patience 
and humility into the minds of scientific men: together 
with the recollection that facts and phenomena which 
do not depend on our will, must be waited for — that 
we must be at their command, for they will not be 
at ours. 

But to return once more to our own subject. If we 
do believe that a future life awaits us, there can be 
nothing more natural than the desire to obtain some 
inlormation as to what manner of life that is to be for 
which any one of us may, before this time to-morrow, 
have exchanged his present mode of being. That there 
does not exist a greater interest with regard to this 
question in the mind of man, arises, partly from the 
vague intangible kind of belief he entertains of the fact; 
partly from his absorption in worldly affairs, and the 
hard and indigestible food upon which his clerical shep- 
herds pasture him — for, under dogmatic theology, reli- 
gion seems to have withered away to the mere husk of 
spiritualism; and partly, also from the apparent im- 
possibility of pursuing the inquiry to any purpose. As 
I said before, observation and experience can alone 
guide us in such an inquiry; for though most people 
have a more or less intuitive sense of their own immor- 



INTRODUCTION. 1 3 

tahxy, intuition is silent as to the mode of it; and the 
question I am anxious here to discuss with my readers, 
is, whether we have any facts to observe, or any expe- 
rience from which, on this most interesting of all 
subjects, a conclusion may be drawn. Great as the 
difficulty is of producing evidence, it will. I think, be 
pretty generally admitted, that, although each individual 
case, as it stands alone, may be comparatively valueless, 
the amount of recurrent cases forms a body of evidence, 
that on any other subject would scarcely be rejected; and 
since, if the facts are accepted, the^juniperatively demand 
an explanation — for, assuredly, the present theory of 
spectral illusions cannot comprise them — our inquiry, 
let it terminate in whatever conclusion it may, cannot be 
useless or uninteresting. Various views of the pheno- 
mena in question may be taken; and although I shall 
offer my own opinions, and the theories and opinions 
of others, I insist upon none; I do not write to dogma- 
tise, but to suggest reflection and inquiry. The books 
of Dr. Ferriar, Dr. Hibbert, and Dr. Thatcher, the 
American, are all written to support one exclusive 
theory; and they only give such cases as serve to sus- 
tain it. They maintain that the whole phenomena are 
referable to nervous or sanguineous derangement, and 
are mere subjective illusions; and whatever instance 
cannot be covered by this theory, they reject as false, 
or treat as a case of extraordinary coincidence. In 
short, they arrange the facts to their theory, not their 
theory to the facts. The books cannot, therefore, claim 
to be considered as anything more than essays on a 
special disease; they have no pretence whatever to the 
character of investigations. The question, consequently, 
remains as much an open one as before they treated it; 
whilst we have the advantage of their experience and 
information with regard to the peculiar malady that 
forms the subject of their works. On that subject it 
is not my intention to enter; it is a strictly medical 
one 3 and every information may be obtained respecting 



14: INTRODUCTION. 

it in the above-named treatises, and others, emanating 
from the faculty. 

The subjects I do intend to treat of are, the various 
kinds of prophetic dreams, presentiments, second-sight, 
and apparitions ; and, in short, all that class of pheno- 
mena, which appears to throw some light on our psychi- 
cal nature, and on the probable state of the soul after 
death. In this discussion I shall make free use of my 
German authorities, Doctors Kerner, Stilling, Werner, 
Eschenmayer, Ennemoser, Passavant, Schubert, Yon 
Meyer, &c. <fcc.; and I here make a general acknow- 
ledgment to that effect, because it would embarrass my 
book too much to be constantly giving names and 
references ; although when I quote their words lite- 
rally, I shall make a point of doing so ; and because, 
also, that as I have been both thinking and reading 
much on these subjects for a considerable time past, I 
am, in fact, no longer in a condition to appropriate 
either to them or myself, each his own. This, how- 
ever, is a matter of very little consequence, as I am not 
desirous of claiming any ideas as mine that can be found 
elsewhere. It is enough for me, if I succeed in making 
a tolerably clear exposition of the subject, and can in- 
duce other people to reflect upon it, 



15 



CHAPTER II. 

THE DWELLER IN THE TEMPLE. 

It is almost needless to observe, that the Scriptures 
repeatedly speak of man as a tripartite being, consisting 
of spirit, soul, and body ; and that, according to St. 
Paul, we have two bodies — a natural body, and a spiri- 
tual body ; the former being designed as our means ol 
communication with the external world — an instrument 
to be used and controlled by our nobler parts. It is 
this view of it, carried to a fanaticism, which has led 
to the various and extraordinary mortifications re- 
corded of ascetics. As is remarked by the Rev. Hare 
Townshend, in a late edition of his book on Mesmerism, 
in this fleshly body consists our organic life ; in the 
body which we are to retain through eternity, consists 
our fundamental life. May not the first, he says, " be 
a temporary development of the last, just as leaves, 
flowers, and fruits, are the temporary developments of 
a tree ] And in the same manner that these pass and 
drop away, yet leave the principle of reproduction be- 
hind, so may our present organs be detached from us 
oy death, and yet the ground of our existence be spared 
to us continuously." 

Without entering into the subtle disputes of philo- 
sophers, with regard to the spirit, a subject on which 
there is a standing controversy betwixt the disciples of 
Hegel and those of other teachers, I need only observe 
that the Scriptures seem to indicate what some of the 
heathen sages taught, that the spirit that dwells within 
as is the spirit of God, incorporated in us for a period, 



16 THE DWELLER TS THE TEMPLE. 

for certain ends of his own, to be thereby wrought out. 
What those ends are, it does not belong to my present 
subject to consider. In this spirit so imparted to us t 
dwells, says Eschenmayer, the conscience, which keeps 
watch over the body and the soul, saying, " Thus shalt 
thou do !" And it is to this Christ addresses himself 
when he bids his disciples become perfect, like their 
Father in Heaven. The soul is subject- to the spirit : 
and its functions are, to will, or choose, to think, and to 
feel, and to become thereby cognizant of the true, the 
beautiful, and the good ; comprehending the highest 
principle, the highest ideal, and the most perfect hap- 
piness. The Ego, or /, is the resultant of the throe 
forces, Pneuma, Psyche, Soma — spirit, soul, and body. 

In the spirit or soul, or rather in both conjoined, 
dwells, also, the power of spiritual seeing, or intuitive 
knowing ; for, as there is a spiritual body, there is a 
spiritual eye, and a spiritual ear, and so forth ; or, to 
speak more correctly, all these sensuous functions are 
comprised in one universal sense, which does not need 
the aid of the bodily organs r but, on the contrary, is 
most efficient when most freed from them. It remains 
to be seen whether, or in what degree, such separation 
can take place during life ; complete it cannot be till 
death ; but whoever believes sincerely that the divine 
spirit dwells within him, can, I should think, find no 
difficulty in conceiving that, although from the tempo- 
rary conditions to which it is subjected, this universal 
faculty is limited and obscured, it must still retain its 
indefeasible attribute. 

We may naturally conclude that the most perfect 
state of man on earth consists in the most perfect unity 
of the spirit and the soul ; and to those who in this life 
have attained the nearest to that unity, will the entire 
assimilation of the two, after they are separated from 
the body, be the easiest ; whilst to those who have 
lived only their intellectual and external life, this union 
must be extremely difficult; the soul having chosen its 



THE UWELLER IN THE TEMPLE. 17 

part with the body and divorced itself, as much as in it 
lay, from the spirit. The voice ot conscience is then 
scarcely heard : and the soul, degraded and debased, 
can no longer perform its functions of discerning the 
true, the beautiful, and the good. 

On these distinct functions of the soul and spirit, 
however, it is not my intention to insist ; since, it ap- 
pears to me, a subject on which we are not yet in a 
condition to dogmatise. We know rather more about 
our bodies, by means ol which the soul and spirit are 
united and brought into contact with the material 
world, and which are constructed wholly with a view 
to the conditions of that world ; such as time, space, 
solidity, extension, &c. <fcc. But we must conceive 
of God as necessarily independent of these eon- 
ditions. To Him, all times and all places must 
be for ever present ; and it is thus that he is om- 
niscient and omnipresent; and since we are placed 
by the spirit in immediate relation with God, and 
the spiritual world, just as we are placed by the 
body in immediate relation with the material world, 
we may, in the first place, fomi a notion of the 
possibility that some faint gleams of these inherent 
attributes may, at times, shoot up through the 
clay in which the spirit hath taken up its tempo- 
rary abode'; and we may also admit, that through 
the connexion winch exists betwixt k us and the 
spiritual world, it is not impossible but that we may, 
at times, and under certain conditions, become cogni- 
zant of, and enter into more immediate relation with it. 
This is the only postulate I ask ; for, as I said before, 
I do not wish to enforce opinions, but to suggest pro- 
babilities, or at least possibilities, and thus arouse re- 
flection and inquiry. 

With respect to the term invisible world, I beg to 
remind my readers, that what we call seeing, is merely 
the function of an organ constructed for that purpose, 
in relation to the external world ; and so limited ara 



38 THE DWELLER IN THE TEMPLE. 

its powers, that we are surrounded by many thm«- 
m that world which we eannot see 4hou fthe Z 
of artificial appliances, and many other things whkh 
we eannot see even with them ; the atmosphereln which 
we live, for example, which, although its weight an 
mechanical forces are the subjects of accuratc°caleuk 

Thus L^ffZ r PerC f ptiMe *° our ** ^ga i 
Tims, the fact that we do not commonly see them 

forms no legitimate objection to the hypothesis of Z' 

being surrounded by a world of spirits, or of tha 

world being inter-diffused amongst us. SupwsL t£ 

crrs o ant to of b t e h decid i'- ? a * we d ° --Srs m 

cogm^nt of them, which, however, I admit it is not- 
since, ^etier the apparitions are subjective or 2b' 
jective, that is, whether they are the mei pLomena 
ol disease, or real outstanding appearances, is theT 
quiry I desire to promote-but, I say, supposin7 t w 
question were decided in the affirmative, thfSt that 
arises is, how, or by what means do 'we see tW 
01 if they address us, hear them ? If that umyeSd 

Sr o ; V^^ t0 me t0 b « Separable from the 
noTi.T ' bG ^ admitt ^I*hink there cTn be 
no difficulty m answermg this question : and if it be 
objected that we are conscious of no 'such sense T 

SETo "tt'boV 11 -^ 8 andln -tla^ia 
states ot the body, it is frequently manifested Tn 
order to render this more cleai, and/at the Sm e time 
to gl y an interesting instance of this soitTpheno 
menon J will transcribe a passage from a letter of St 

^fcutfonV 118 Mend EVadiUS ( E P i8t0la ^ 4^ 
<■ "J ? iU -n el f e to y° n a circumstance," he writes 

bother Sennadius, well known to us all as an emine 
physician, and whom we especially love who k Z 2 
Carthage, after having distLguiaL ffl 2£ 
^J with whose piety and active benevolence you "re 
well acquainted, could yet, nevertheless, as he has "lately 



THE DWELLER IN THE TEMPLE. 19 

nairated to us, by no means bring himself to believe 
in a life after death. 'Now, God, doubtless, not willing 
that his soul should perish, there appeared to him, 
one night in a dream, a radiant youth of noble aspect, 
who bade him follow him ; and as Sennadius obeyed, 
they came to a city where, on the right side, he 
heard a chorus of the most heavenly voices. As 
he desired to know whence this divine harmony pro- 
ceeded, the youth told him that what he heard were 
the songs of the blessed ; whereupon he awoke, and 
thought no more of his dreams than people usually do. 
On another night, however, behold ! the youth appears 
to him again and asks if he knows him, and Senna- 
dius related to him all the particulars of his former 
dream, which he well remembered. ' Then,' said the 
youth, i was it whilst sleeping or waking that you 
saw these things V ' I was sleeping,' answered Senna- 
dius. • You are right,' returned the youth, e it was in 
your sleep that you saw these things ; and know, oh, 
Sennadius, that what you see now is also in your 
sleep. But if this be so, tell me where then is your 
body V c In my bedchamber,' answered Sennadius. 
•' But know you not,' continued the stranger, ' that 
your eyes, which form a part of your body, are closed and 
inactive ¥ C I know it,' answered he. 'Then,' said the 
youth, e with what eyes see you these things? And 
Sennadius could not answer hini ; and as he hesitated, 
the youth spoke again, and explained to him the motive 
of his questions. i As the eyes of your body,' said he, 
• which lies now on your bed and sleeps, are inactive 
and useless, and yet you have eyes wherewith you see 
me and these things I have shown unto you, so after 
death, when these bodily organs fail you, you will 
have a vital power, whereby you will live ; and a sen- 
sitive faculty, whereby you will perceive. Doubt, 
therefore, no longer that there is a life after death.' 
And thus," said this excellent man, " was I convinced, 
and ail doubts removed." 



20 THE DWELLER IN THE TEMPLE. 

I confess there appears to me a beauty and a logical 
truth in this dream, that I think might convince more- 
than the dreamer. 

It is by the hypothesis of this universal sense, latent 
within us. an hypothesis which, whoever believes that 
we are immortal spirits, incorporated for a season in 
a material body, can scarcely reject, that T seek to 
explain those perceptions which are not comprised 
vithin the functions of our bodily organs. It seems 
to me to be the key to all, or nearly all of them, as 
far as our own part in the phenomena extends. But, 
supposing this admitted, there would then remain the 
difficulty of accounting for the partial and capricious 
glimpses we get of it ; whilst in that department of 
the mystery which regards apparitions, except such as 
are the pure result of disease, we must grope our way, 
with very little light to guide us, as to the conditions 
and motives which might possibly bring them into any 
immediate relation with us. 

To any one who has been fortunate enough to witness 
one genuine case of clairvoyance, I think the conception 
of this universal sense will not be difficult; however, 
the mode of its exercise may remain utterly incompre- 
hensible. As I have said above — to the great spirit 
and fountain of life all things, both in space and time, 
must be present. However impossible it is to our 
finite minds to conceive this, we must believe it. It 
may, in some slight degree, Tacilitate the conception to 
remember that action, once begun, never ceases — an 
impulse given is transmitted on for ever, a sound 
breathed reverberates in eternity, and thus the past is 
always present, although, for the purpose of fitting us 
for this mortal life, our ordinary senses are so con- 
stituted as to be unperceptive of these phenomena. 
With respect to what we call the future, it is more 
difficult still for us to conceive it as present; nor, as far 
as I know, can we borrow from the sciences the same 
assistance as mechanical discoveries have just furnished 



THE DWELLER IX THE TEMPLE. 21 

me with regard to the past. How a spirit sees that 
which has not yet, to our senses, taken place, seems, cer- 
tainly, inexplicable. Foreseeing it is not inexplicable ; 
we foresee many things by arguing on given premises, 
although, from our own finite views, we are always 
liable to be mistaken. Louis Lambert says, " Such 
events as are the product of humanity, and the result of 
its intelligence, have their own causes in which they lie 
latent, just as our actions are accomplished in our 
thoughts previous to any outward demonstration of 
them; presentiments and prophecies consist in the in- 
tuitive perception of these causes." This explanation, 
which is quite conformable with that of Cicero, may aid 
us in some degree as regards a certain, small class of 
phenomena, but there is something involved in the 
question much more subtle than this; our dreams can 
give Us the only idea of it, for there we do actually see 
and hear, not only that which never was, but that 
which never will be. Actions and events, words and 
sounds, persons and places, are as clearly and vividly 
present to us as if they were actually what they seem, 
and I should think that most people must be somewhat 
puzzled to decide in regard to certain scenes and cir- 
cumstances that live in their memory, whether the 
images are the result of their waking or sleeping ex- 
perience. Although by no means a dreamer, and 
without the most remote approximation to any faculty 
of presentiment, I know this is the case with myself. 
I remember also a very curious effect being produced 
upon me when I was abroad, some years ago, from 
eating the iin wholesome bread to which we were 
reduced, in consequence of a scarcity. Some five or six 
times a day I was seized with a sort of vertigo, during 
which I seemed to pass through certain scenes, and was 
conscious of certain words which appeared to me to have 
a strange connexion, either with some former period oi 
my life, or else some previous state of existence; the 
words and the scenes were on each occasion precisely 



THE DWELLER Itf THE TEMPLE. 

the saitio. I was always aware of that, and I always 
made the strongest efforts to grasp and retain them in 
my memory, but I conld not; I only knew that the 
thing had been, the words and the scenes were gone. I 
seemed to pass momentarily into another sphere and 
back again. This was purely the result of disorder 
but, like a dream, it shows how we may be perceptive 
of that which is not, and which never may be, render- 
ing it, therefore, possible to conceive that a spirit may 
be equally perceptive of that which shall be. I am very 
far from meaning to imply that these examples remove 
the difficulty; they do not explain the thing, they only 
show somewhat the mode of it. But it must be re- 
membered that when physiologists pretend to settle the 
wmole question of apparitions by the theory of spectral 
illusions they are exactly in the same predicament. 
They can supply examples of similar phenomena, but 
how a person, perfectly in his senses, should receive the 
spectral visits, not only of friends, but strangers, when 
he is thinking of no such matter, or by what process, 
mental or optical, the figures are conjured up, remains 
as much a mystery as before a line was written on the 
subject. 

All people and all ages have believed, more or less, 
in prophetic dreams, presentiments, and apparitions, 
and all histories have furnished examples of them. 
That the truths may be frequently distorted and 
mingled with fable is no argument against those tradi- 
tions; if it were, all history must be rejected on the 
same plea. Both the Old and New Testament furnish 
numerous examples of these phenomena, and although 
Christ and the Apostles reproved all the superstitions 
of the age, these persuasions are not included in their 
reprehensions. 

Neither is the comparative rarity of these phenomena 
any argument against their possibility. There are 
many strange things which occur still more rarely, but 
which we do not look upon as supernatural or miracu- 



THE DWELLER IN THE TEMPLE. 2$ 

lous. Of nature's ordinary laws we yet know but 
little, of their aberrations and perturbations still less. 
How should we, when the world is a miracle and life a 
dream, of which we know neither the beginning nor the 
end ! We do not even know that we see anything as 
it is, or rather we know that we do not. We see 
things but as our visual organs represent them to us, 
and were those organs differently constructed the aspect 
of the world would to us be changed. How then can 
we pretend to decide upon what is and what is not ? 

Nothing could be more perplexing to any one who 
read them with attention, than the trials for witch- 
craft of the seventeenth century. Many of the feats 
of the ancient thaumaturgists and wonder-workers of 
the temples, might have been nearly as much so; but, 
these were got rid of by the easy expedient of pro- 
nouncing them fables and impostures; but, during 
the witch mania, so many persons proved their faith 
in their own miraculous powers by the sacrifice of 
their lives, that it was scarcely possible to doubt their 
having some foundation for their own persuasion, 
though what that foundation could be, till the late dis- 
coveries in animal magnetism, it was difficult to con- 
ceive: but here we have a new page opened to us ; which 
concerns both the history of the w r orld and the history 
of man, as an individual; and we begin to see, that 
that which the ignorant thought supernatural, and 
the wise impossible, has been both natural and true. 
Whilst the scientific men of Great Britain, and several 
of our journalists, have been denying and ridiculing the 
reports of these phenomena, the most eminent physi- 
cians of Germany have been quietly studying and 
investigating them; and giving to the world, in their 
works, the results of their experience. Amongst the 
rest, Dr. Joseph Ennemoser, of Berlin, has presented 
to us in his two books on " Magic,'* and on '■ The Con- 
nexion of Magnetism with Nature and Religion," the 
fruits of his thirty years' study of this subject; during 



24 THE DWELLER IN THE TEMPLE. 

the course of which he has had repeated opportunities 
of investigating all the phenomena, and of making 
himself perfectly familiar with even the most rare and 
perplexing. To any one who has studied these works, 
the mysteries of the temples and of the witch trials are 
mysteries no longer; and he writes with the professed 
design, not to make science mystical, but to bring the 
mysterious within the bounds of science. The pheno- 
mena, as he justly says, are as old as the human race. 
Animal magnetism is no new development, nc new 
discovery. Inseparable from life, although, like many 
other vital phenomena, so subtle in its influences, that 
only in abnormal cases it attracts attention, it has ex- 
hibited itself more or less in all ages, and in all coun- 
tries. But its value as a medical agent is only -now 
beginning to dawn on the civilized world, whilst its 
importance, in a higher point of view, is yet pei oeived 
but by few. Every human being who has ever with- 
drawn himself from the strife, and the turmoil, and tbe 
distraction of the world without, in order to look 
within, must have found himself perplexed by a thou- 
sand questions with regard to his own being which he 
would find no one able to solve. In the study of animal 
magnetism, he will first obtain some gleams of a light 
which w^ill show him that he is indeed the child of God ! 
and that, though a dweller on the earth and fallen, 
some traces of his divine descent, and of his unbroken 
connexion with a higher order of being, still^emain to 
comfort and encourage him. He will find that there 
exists in his species the germs of faculties that are 
never fully unfolded here on earth, and which have no 
reference to this state of being. They exist in all men; 
but in most cases are so faintly elicited as not to be 
observable; and when they do shoot up here and there, 
they are denied, disowned, misinterpreted, and maligned. 
It is true, that their development is often the symptom 
and effect of disease, which seems to change the rela- 
tions of our material and immaterial parts. It is 



THE DWELLER D* THE TEMPLE. 25 

true, that some of the phenomena resulting from 
these faculties are simulated by disease, as in the case 
of spectral illusions; and it is true, that imposture and 
folly intrude their unhallowed footsteps into this 
domain of science, as into that of all others; but there 
is a deep and holy well of truth to be discovered in 
this neglected bye-path of nature, by those who seek it, 
from which they may draw the purest consolations for 
the present, the most ennobling hopes for the future, 
and the most valuable aid in penetrating through the 
letter into the spirit of the Scriptures. 

I confess it makes me sorrowful when I hear men 
laughing, scorning, and denying this their birthright] 
aud I cannot but grieve to think how closely and 
heavily their clay must be wrapt about them, and how 
the external and sensuous life must have prevailed over 
the internal, when no gleam from within breaks through 
to show them that these things are trm, 



26 



CHAPTER III. 

WAKING AND SLEEPING; 

AND HOW THE DWELLER IN THE TEMPLE 

SOMETIMES LOOKS ABROAD. 

To begin with the most simple — or rather, I should say, 
the most ordinary, class of phenomena — for we can 
scarcely call that simple, the mystery of which we have 
never been able to penetrate — I mean dreaming — 
everybody's experience will suffice to satisfy them, that 
their ordinary dreams take place in a state of imperfect 
sleep ; and that this imperfect sleep may be caused by 
any bodily or mental derangement whatever; or even 
from an ill-made bed, or too much or too little covering ; 
and it is not difficult to conceive that the strange, con- 
fused, and disjointed visions we are subject to on these 
occasions, may proceed from some parts of the brain 
being less at rest than the others; so that, assuming 
phrenology to be fact, one organ is not in a state to 
correct the impressions of another. Of such vain and 
insignificant visions, I need scarcely say it is not my 
fntention to treat ; but at the same time I must observe, 
that when we have admitted the above explanation, as 
far as it goes, we have not, even in regard to them, 
made much progress towards removing the difficulty. 
If dreaming resembled thinking, the explanations might 
be quite satisfactory ; but the truth is, that dreaming is 
not thinking, as we think in our waking state; but 
is more analogous to thinking in delirium or acute 
mania, or in that chronic condition which gives rise to 
sensuous illusions. In our ordinary normal state, con- 



WAKING AM> tff.EEriXC, ETC. 37 

ceiving of places or persons does not enable us to see 
them or hold coinniimion with them; nor cJQ_ we faacy 
that we do either. It is true that I have heard some 
painters say, that by closing their eyes and concentrat ing 
their thoughts on an object, they can bring it more or 
less vividly before them : and Blake j>rofessed actually 
to see his sitters when they were not present; bu* 
whatever interpretations we may put upon this curious 
faculty, his case was clearly abnormal, and connected 
with some personal peculiarity, either physical or psy- 
chical; and, after making the most of it, it must be 
admitted that it can enter into no sort of comparison 
with that we possess in sleep, when in our most ordinary 
dreams, untrammelled by time or space, we visit the 
uttermost ends of the earth, fly in the air, swim in the 
sea, listen to beautiful music and eloquent orations, 
behold the most charming, as well as the most loathsome 
objects ; and not only see, but converse with our friends, 
absent or present, dead or alive. Every one, I think, 
will grant that there is the widest possible difference 
betwixt conceiving of these things when awake, and 
dreaming them. When we dream, we do, we see, we 
say, we hear, &c. &c, that is, we believe at the time 
that we do so; and what more can be said of us when 
we are awake, than that we believe we are doing, seeing 
saying, hearing, &c. It is by external circumstances, 
and the result of our actions, that we are able to decide 
whether we have actually done a thing or seen a place, 
or only dreamt that we have done so; and as I havf- 
said above, after some lapse of time, we are not always 
able to distinguish between the two. Whilst dreaming 
we frequently ask ourselves whether we are awake or 
asleep; and nothing is more common than to hear 
people say, " Well, I think I did, or heard so and so ; 
but I am not sure whether it was so, or whether I dreamt 
it." Thvis, therefore, the very lowest order of dreaming, 
the most disjointed and perplexed, is far removed from 
the most vivid presentations of our waking thoughts; 



28 WAKING AND SLEEPING, ETC, 

and it is in this respect, I think, that the explanations ol 
the phenomena hitherto offered by phrenologists, and 
the metaphysicians of this country, are inadequate and 
unsatisfactory; whilst as regards the analogy betwixt 
the visions of sleep and delirium, whatever similarity 
''here may be in the effects, we cannot suppose tht, 
cause to be identical: since, in delirium, the images and 
delusions are the result of excessive action ol the brain, 
which we must conclude to be the very reverse of its 
condition in si^r-v Pinel certainly has hazarded an 
opinion that sleep is occasioned by an efflux of blood to 
the head, and consequent compression of the brain — a 
theory which would have greater weight were sleep more 
strictly periodical than it is; but which, at present, it 
seems impossible to reconcile with many established 
fact*. 

Some of the German physiologists and psychologists 
have taken a deeper view of this question of dreaming, 
from considering it in connexion with the phenomena 
of animal magnetism: and although their theories 
differ in some respects, they all unite in looking towards 
that department of nature for instruction. Whilst one 
section of these inquirers, the Exegetical Society of 
Stockholm included, calls in the aid of supernatural 
agency, another, amongst whom Dr. Joseph Eimemoser, 
of Berlin, appears to be one of the most eminent r 
maintains that the explanation of the mystery is to be 
chiefly sought in the great and universal law of polarity, 
which extends not only beyond the limits of this earthy 
but beyond the limits ol this system, which must 
necessarily be in connexion with all others ; so that 
there is thus an eternal and never-ceasing inter-action, 
of which, from the multiplicity and contrariety of the 
influences we are insensible, just as we are insensible of 
the pressure of the atmosphere, from its impinging on 
us equally on all sides. 

Waking and sleeping are the day and night sides of 
organic life, during which alternation an animal is placed 



WAKING AND SLEEPING, ETC. 29 

in different relations to the external world, and to these 
alternations all organisms are subject. The complete- 
ness and independence of each individual organism, is 
in exact ratio to the number and completeness of the 
organs it developes ; and thus the locomotive animal 
has the advantage of the plant or the zoophyte, whilst, 
of the animal kingdom, man is the most complete and 
independent ; and, although still a member of the uni- 
versal whole, and therefore incapable of isolating him- 
self, yet better able than any other organism to ward 
off external influences, and comprise his world within 
himself. But, according to Dr. Ennemoser, *>ne of the 
consequences of this very completeness, is a weak and 
insignificant development of instinct ; and thus the 
healthy, waking, conscious man, is, of all organisms, 
the least sensible to the impressions of this universal 
intercommunication and polarity ; although, at the 
same time, partaking of the nature of the plant and the 
animal, he is subject, like the first, to all manner of 
atmospheric, telluric, and periodic influences ; and fre- 
quently exhibits, like the second, peculiar instinctive 
appetites and desires, and, in some individual organiza- 
tions, very marked antipathies and susceptibilities with 
regard to certain objects and influences, even when not 
placed in any evident relation with them. 

According to this theory, sleep is a retrograde step — - 
a retreating into a lower sphere ; in which condition, 
the sensuous functions being in abeyance, the instincts 
somewhat resume their sway. " In sleep and in sick- 
ness/' he says, u the higher animals and man fall in a 
physico-organical pohit of view, from their individual 
independence, or power of self sustainment ; and their 
polar relation, that is, their relation to the healthy and 
waking man, becomes changed from a positive to a 
negative one ; all men, in regard to each other, as well 
as all nature, being the subjects of this polarity. It is 
to be remembered, that this theory of Dr. Ennemoser's 
was promulgated before the discoveries of Baron you 



30 WAKING AND SLEEPING, ETC. 

Reichenback in magnetism were made public, and the 
susceptibility to magnetic influences in the animaj 
organism, which the experiments of the latter go to 
establish, is certainly in its favour ; but whilst it pre- 
tends to explain the condition of the sleepers, and may 
possibly be of some service in our investigations into 
the mystery of dreaming, it leaves us as much in the 
dark as ever, with respect to the cause of our falling 
into this negative state ; an inquiry in which little 
progress seems to have been hitherto made. 

With respect to dreaming, Dr. Ennemoser rejects 
the physiological theory, which maintains, that in sleep, 
magnetic or otherwise, the activity of the brain is trans- 
ferred to the ganglionic system, and that the former 
falls into a subordinate relation. " Dreaming," he says, 
" is the gradual awakening of activity in the organs of 
imagination, whereby the presentation of sensuous 
objects to the spirit, which had been discontinued in 
profound sleep, is resumed. " Dreaming," he adds, 
" also arises from the secret activity of the spirit in the 
innermost sensuous organs of the brain, busying the 
fancy with subjective sensuous images, the objective 
conscious day-life giving place to the creative dominion 
of the poetical genius, to which night becomes day, and 
universal nature its theatre of action ; and thus the 
-supersensuous or transcendent nature of the spirit be- 
comes more manifest in dreaming than in the waking 
state. But, in considering this phenomena, man must 
be viewed both in his psychical and physical relations, 
and as equally subject to spiritual as to natural opera- 
tions and influences ; since, during the continuance of 
life, neither soul nor body can act quite independently 
of the other ; for, although it be the immortal spirit 
which perceives, it is through the instrumentality of 
the sensuous organs that it does so ; for of absolute 
spirit without body, we can form no conception." 

What is here meant seems to be, that the brain be- 
comes the world to the spirit, befc he impressions 



WAKING AND BLEEPING, ETC. 3t 

from the external world do actually come streaming 
tli rough by means of the external sensuous organs. But 
in this state, the brain, which is the store-house of 
acquired knowledge, is not in a condition to apply its 
acquisitions effectively ; whilst the intuitive knowledge 
of the spirit, if the sleep be imperfect, is clouded by its 
iDierierence. 

Other physiologists, however, believe, from the 
numerous and well-attested cases of the transference of 
the senses, in disease, to the pit of the stomach, that 
the activity of the brain in sleep is transferred to the 
epigastric region. The instances of this phenomenon, 
as related by Dr. Petetin and others, having been fre- 
quently published, I need not here quote. But, as 
Dr. Passavant observes, it is well known that the func- 
tions of the nerves differ in some animals, and that one 
set can supply the place of another; as in those cases 
where there is a great susceptibility to light, though no- 
eyes can be discovered. 

These physiologists believe that, even during the 
most profound sleep, the spirit retains its activity — a 
proposition which, indeed, we cannot doubt; " it wakes, 
though the senses sleep, retreating into its infinite 
depths, like the sun at night; living on its spiritual life 
undisturbed, whilst the body sinks into a state of vege- 
tative tranquillity. Nor does it follow that the soul is 
unconscious in sleep, because in waking we have fre- 
quently lost all memory of its consciousness : since, by 
the repose of the sensuous organs, the bridge betwixt 
waking and sleeping is removed, and the recollections ot 
one state are not carried into the other." 

It will occur here to every one, how often in the 
instant of waking, we are not only conscious that we 
have been dreaming, but are also conscious of the subject 
of the dream, which we try in vain to grasp, but which 
eludes us, and is gone for ever, the moment we have 
passed into a state of complete wakefulness. 

Now, with respect to this so-called dreaming in-. 



S3 DREAMING, ETC. 

profound sleep, it is a thing no one can well doubt, w liu 
thoroughly believes that his body is a temple built lor 
the dwelling of an immortal spirit ; for we cannot con- 
ceive of spirit sleeping, or needing that restoration 
which we know to be the condition of earthly organisms. 
If, therefore, the spirit wakes, may we not suppose that 
the more it is disentangled from the obstructions of the 
body, the more clear will be its perceptions; and that, 
therefore, in the profound natural sleep of the sensuous 
organs we may be in a state of clear-seeing. All who 
have attended to the subject are aware that the clear- 
seeing of magnetic patients depends on the depth of 
their sleep; whatever circumstance, internal or external, 
tends to interrupt this profound repose of the sensuous 
organs, inevitably obscures their perceptions. 

Again, with respect to the not carrying with us the 
recollections of one state into the other, should not this 
lead us to suspect that sleeping and waking are two 
different spheres of existence, partaking of the nature 
of that double life, of which the records of human 
physiology have presented us with various instances, 
wherein a patient finds himself utterly divested of all 
recollection of past events and acquired knowledge, 
and has to begin life and education anew, till another 
transition takes place, wherein he recovers what lie had 
lost, whilst he at the same time loses all he had lately 
gained, which he only recovers, once more, by another 
transition, restoring to him his lately acquired know- 
ledge, but again obliterating his original stock; thus 
alternately passing from one state to the other, and 
disclosing a double life; an educated man in one con- 
dition, a child learning his alphabet in the next. 

Where the transition from one state to another is 
complete, memory is entirely lost: but there are cases 
in which the change, being either gradual or modified, 
the recollections of one life are carried more or less into 
the other. We know this to be the case with magnetic 
sleepers, as it is with ordinary dreamers; and most 






DREAMING, ETC. 33 

persons have met with instances of the dream of one 
night being continued in the next. Treviranus mentions 
the case of a student who regularly began to talk the 
moment he fell asleep, the subject of his discourse being 
a dream, which he always took up at the exact point at 
winch he had left it the previous morning. Of this 
dream he had never the slightest recollection in hia 
waking state. A daughter of Sir George Mackenzie's, 
who died at an early age, was endowed with a remark- 
able genius for music, and was an accomplished organist. 
This young lady dreamt, during an illness, that she was at 
a party, where she had heard a new piece of music, which 
made so great an impression on her by its novelty and 
beauty, that, on awakening, she besought her attendants 
to bring her some paper, that she might write it down 
before she had forgotten it, an indulgence which, 
apprehensive of excitement, her medical attendant 
unfortunately forbad; for, apart from the additional 
psychological interest that would have been attached 
to the fact, the effects ol compliance, judging from what 
ensued, Avould probably have been soothing, rather than 
otherwise. About ten days afterwards she had a second 
dream, wherein she again found herself at a party, 
where she descried on the desk of a pianoforte, in a 
corner of the room, an open book, in which, with 
astonished delight, she recognised the same piece of 
music, which she immediately proceeded to play, and 
then awoke. The piece was not of a short or fugitive 
character, but in the style of an overture. The question 
of course remains, as to whether she was composing the 
music in her sleep, or, by an act of clairvoyance, was 
perceiving some that actually existed. Either is pos- 
sible, for, although she might have been incapable of 
composing so elaborate a piece in her waking .state, 
there are many instances on record of persons per- 
forming intellectual feats in dreams, to which they were 
unequal when awake. A very eminent person assured 
that he had once composed some lines in his slee^ 



3 J: BREAMING, ETC. 

I think it was a sonnet, which far exceeded any of his 
waking performances of that description. 

Somewhat analogous to this sort of double life, is the 
case of the young girl mentioned by Dr. Abercrombie 
and others, whose employment was keeping cattle, and 
who slept for some time, much to her own annoyance, 
in i&e room adjoining one occupied by an itinerant 
musician. The man, who played exceedingly well, being 
an enthusiast in his art, frequently practised the greater 
part of the night, performing on his violin . very com- 
plicated and difficult compositions, whilst the girl, so 
for from discovering any pleasure in his performances, 
complained bitterly of being kept awake by the noise. 
Some time after tins she fell ill, and was removed to 
the house of a charitable lady, who undertook the 
charge of her; and here, by and by, the family were 
amazed by frequently hearing the most exquisite music 
in the night, which they at length discovered to pro- 
ceed from the girl. The sounds were those of a violin, 
and the tuning and other preliminary processes were 
accurately imitated. She went through long and 
elaborate pieces, and afterwards was heard imitating, 
in the same way, the sounds of a pianoforte that was 
in the house. She also talked very cleverly on the 
subjects of religion and politics, and discussed, with 
great judgment, the characters and conduct of ]>ersons, 
public and private. Awake, she knew nothing of these 
things, but was, on the contrary, stupid, heavy, and 
had no taste whatever for music. Phrenology would 
probably interpret this phenomenon, by saying that the 
lower elements of the cerebral spinal axis, as organs of 
sensation, &c., <fcc, being asleep, the cluster of the 
higher organs requisite for the above combinations were 
not only awake, but rendered more active from the 
repose of the others: but to me it appears that we 
here see the inherent faculties of the spirit manifesting 
themselves whilst the body slept. The same faculties 
•-ust have existed when it w»« in a waking state; but 



DREAMING, ETC. 35 

the impressions and manifestations were then dependent 
on the activity and perfection of the sensuous organs, 
which seem to have been of an inferior order; and, 
consequently, no rays of this in-dwelling genius could 
pierce the coarse integument in which it was lodged. 

Similar imexpected faculties have been not unfre- 
quently manifested by the dying ; and we may conclude 
to a 'certain degree from the same cause, namely, that 
the incipient death of the body is leaving the spirit 
more unobstructed. Dr. Steinbech mentions the case 
of a clergyman, who, being summoned to administer the 
last sacraments to a dying peasant, found him to his 
surprise praying aloud in Greek and Hebrew, a mystery 
which could be no otherwise explained than by the 
circumstance ot his having when a child frequently 
heard the then minister of the parish praying in those 
languages. He had, however, nevei understood the 
prayers, nor indeed paid any attention to them, still 
less had he been aware that they had lived in his- 
memory. It would give much additional interest to 
this story had Dr. Steinbech mentioned how far the 
man, now, whilst uttering the words, understood their 
meaning ; whether he was aware of what he was say- 
ing, or was only repeating the words by rote. 

With regard to the extraordinary faculty of memory 
manifested in these and similar cases, I shall have 
some observations to make in a subsequent part of this 
book. 

Parallel instances are those of idiots, who, either in 
a somnambulic state, or immediately previous to death, 
have spoken as if inspired. At St. Jean de Maurienne. 
in Savoy, there was a dumb Cretin, who, having fallen 
into a natural state of somnambulism, not only was 
found to speak with ease, -but also to the purpose, 
a faculty which disappeared, however, whenever he 
awoke. Dumb persons have likewise been known to 
speak when at the point of death. 



36 DREAMING, ETC. 

The possibility of suggesting dreams to some sleepers 
by whispering in the ear is a well known fact ; but 
this can, doubtless, only be practicable where the sen* 
suous organs are partly awake. Then, as with mag- 
netic patients in a state of incomplete sleep, we have 
only reverie and imagination in place of clear-seeing. 

The next class of dreams are those which partake 
of the nature of second- sight, or prophecy, and of these 
there are various kinds; some being plain and literal 
in their premonitions, others allegorical and obscure ; 
whilst some also regard the most unimportant, and 
others the most grave events of our lives. A gentle- 
man engaged in business hi the south of Scotland, for 
example, dreams that on entering his office in the 
morning, he sees seated on a certain stool, a person 
formerly in his service as clerk, of whom he had neither 
heard nor thought for some time. He inquires the 
motive of the visit, and is told that such and such cir- 
cumstances having brought the stranger to that part 
of the country, he could not forbear visiting his old 
quarters, expressing, at the same time, a wish to sj)end 
a few days in his former occupation, &c. &c. The 
gentleman being struck with the vividness of the illu- 
sion relates his dream at breakfast, and, to his surprise, 
on going to his office, there sits the man, and the dia- 
logue that ensues is precisely that of the dream. I have 
heard of numerous instances of this kind of dream, 
where no previous expectation nor excitement of mind 
could be found to account for them, and where the 
fulfilment was too exact and literal, in all particulars, 
to admit of their being explained away by the ready 
resource of " an extraordinary coincidence." There are 
also on record, both in this country and others, many 
perfectly well authenticated cases of people obtaining 
prize*" ■S the lottery, through having dreamt of the 
fortum, . numbers. As many numbers, however, may 
have been dreamt of that were not drawn prizes, we 
can derive no conclusion from this circumstance. 



DREAMING, ETC. 37 

A very remarkable instance of ihis kind of dream- 
nig occurred a few years since to Mr. A. F., an emi- 
nent Scotch advocate, whilst staying in the neighbour- 
hood of Loch Fyne, who dreamt one night that he 
saw a number of people in the street following a man 
co the scaffold. He discovered the features of the 
criminal in the cart, distinctly, and, for some reason or 
other, which he could not account for, felt an extra- 
ordinary interest in his fate, insomuch that he joined 
the throng, and accompanied him to the place that 
was to terminate his earthly career. This interest was 
the more unaccountable that the man had an exceed- 
ingly unprepossessing countenance, but it was, never- 
theless, so vivid, as to induce the dreamer to ascend the 
scaffold and address him with a view to enable him to 
escape the impending catastrophe. Suddenly, however, 
whilst he was talking to him, the whole scene dissolved 
away, and the sleeper awoke. Being a good deal struck 
with the life-like reality of the vision, and the impres- 
sion made on Ins mind by the features of this man, he 
related the circumstance to his friends, at breakfast, 
adding that he should know liim anywhere, if he saw 
him. A few jests being made on the subject, the thing 
was forgotten. 

On the afternoon of the same day, the advocate 
was informed that two men wanted to speak to him. 
and on going into the hall he was struck with amaze- 
ment at perceiving that one of them was the hero of 
his dream ! 

u We are accused of murder," said they, " and we 
svish to consult you. Three of us went out last 
flight in a boat, an accident has happened, our com- 
rade is drowned, and they want to make us account- 
able for him." The advocate then put some interro 
gations to them, and the result produced in his mind 
by their answers was a conviction of their guilt. 
Probably the recollection of his dream rendered the 
effects of this conviction more palpable, for, one ad- 



38 DREAMING, ETC. 

dressing the other, said in Gaelic, " We have come to 
the wrong man; he is against us." 

"There is a higher power than I against you,* 
returned the gentleman; "and the only advice 1 
can give you is, if you are guilty, fly immediately." 
Upon this they went away, and the next thing he 
heard was that they were taken into custody Gil suspi- 
cion of the murder. 

The account of the affair was, that as they said, the 
three had gone out together on the preceding evening, 
and that in the morning the body of one of them had 
been found on the shore, with a cut across his forehead. 
The father and friends of the victim had waited on tne 
banks of the lake till the boat came in, and then de- 
manded their companion, of whom however they pro- 
fessed themselves unable to give any account. Upon this 
the old man led them to his cottage for the purpose of 
showing them the body of his son. One entered, and 
at the sight of it burst into a passion of tears, the other 
refused to step over the threshold, saying his business 
called him immediately home, and went sulkily away. 
This last was the man seen in the dream. 

After a fortnight's incarceration the former of these 
was liberated, and he then declared to the advocate his 
intention of bringing an action of damages for false 
inrprisonment. He was advised not to do it. " Leave 
well alone," said the lawyer; " and if you'll take my 
advice, make off while you can." . The man however re- 
fused to fly: he declared that he really did not know what 
had occasioned the death of his comrade. The latter had 
been at one end of the boat and he at the other, when 
he looked round he was gone, but whether he had 
fallen overboard and cut Ins head as Le fell., or 
whether he had been struck and pushed into the 
water he did not know. The advocate became finally 
satisfied of this man's innocence, but the authorities 
thinking it absurd to try one and not the other, again 
laid hands on him, and it fell to Mr. A. F. to be the 



DREAMING, ETC. 39 

defender of botli. The difficulty was not to separate 
their cases in his pleading, for however morally con- 
vinced of the different ground on which they stood, his 
duty, professionally, was to obtain the acquittal of 
both, in which he finally succeeded as regarded the 
charge of murder. They were therefore sentenced to 
two years' imprisonment, and so far as the dream is 
concerned here ends the story. There remains how- 
ever a curious sequel to it. 

A few years afterwards, the same gentleman being 
in a boat on Loch Fyne. hi company with Sir T. D. L., 
happened to be mentioning these curious circumstances, 
when one of the boatmen said, that he "knew well 
about those two men; and that a very strange thing 
had occurred in regard to one of them." This one, on 
inquiry, proved to be the subject of the dream; and 
the strange thing was this; on being liberated, he had 
quitted that part of the country, and in process of time, 
had gone to Greenock, and thence embarked in a vessel 
for Cork. But the vessel seemed fated never to reach 
its destination; one misfortune happened after another, 
till at length the sailors said, "This wont do; there 
must be a murderer on board with us." As is usual 
when such a persuasion exists, they drew lots three 
times, and each time it fell on that man. He was con- 
sequently put on shore, and the vessel went on its way 
without him. What had become of him afterward?! 
was not known. 

A friend of mine, being in London, dreamt that she 
saw her little boy playing on the terrace of her house 
in Northumberland, that he fell and hurt his arm. and 
she saw him lying apparently dead. The dream 
recurred two or three times, on the same night, and 
she awoke her husband, saying she " feared something 
must have happened to Henry." In due course of post, a 
letter arrived from the governess, saying that she was 
sorry to have to communicate, that whilst playing on 
the terrace that morning, Master Henry had fallen over 



40 DREAMING, ETC. 

a heap of stones, and broken his arm, adding that he 
had fainted after the accident, and had lain for some 
time insensible. The lady to whom this dream occurred, 
is not aware of having manifested this faculty before or 
since, 

Mrs. W. dreamt that she saw people ascending by 
a ladder to the chamber of her step-son John; wakes, 
and says she is afraid he is dead, and that there was 
something odd in her dream about a watch and a 
candle. In the morning, a messenger is sent to inquire 
for the gentleman, and they find people ascending to his 
chamber window by a ladder, the door of the room 
being locked. They discover him dead on the floor 
with his watch in his hand, and the candle between his 
feet. The same lady dreamt that she saw a friend in 
great agony: and that she heard him say, they were 
tearing his flesh from his bones. He was some time 
afterwards seized with inflammation, lay as she had 
seen, and made use of those exact words. 

A friend of mine dreamt lately, that somebody said 
her nephew must not be bled, as it would be dangerous. 
The young man was quite well, and there had been no 
design of bleeding him; but, on the following morning 
he had a tooth drawn, and an effusion of blood ensued, 
which lasted some days, and caused a good deal of 
uneasiness. 

A farmer in Worcestershire dreamt that his little 
boy of twelve years old, had fallen from the wagon 
and was killed. The dream recurred three times in one 
night; but, unwilling to yield to superstitious fears, he 
allowed the child to accompany the wagoner to Kidder- 
minster fair. The driver was very fond of the boy, 
and he felt assured would take care of him; but, having 
occasion to go a little out of the road to leave a parcel, 
the man bade the child walk on with the wagon, and 
he would meet him at a certain spot. On arriving 
there, the horses were coming quietly forward, but the 
boy was not with them; and on retracing the road, h«3 



BREAMING, ETC. 41 

was found dead, having, apparently, fallen from the 
shafts and been crushed by the wheels. 

A gentleman, who resided near one of the Scottish 
lakes, dreamt that he saw a number of persons sur- 
rounding a body, which had just been drawn out of the 
water. On approaching the spot, he perceives that it- 
is himself, and the assistants are his own friends and 
retainers. Alarmed at the life-like reality of the vision, 
he resolved to elude the threatened destiny by never 
venturing on the kike again. On one occasion, however, 
it became quite indispensable that he should do so; and 
as the clay was quite calm, he yielded to the necessity, 
on condition that he should be put ashore at once on 
the opposite side, whilst the rest of the party proceeded 
to their destinations where he would meet them. This 
was accordingly done: the boat skimmed gaily over the 
smooth waters, and arrived safely at the rendezvous, the 
gentlemen laughing at the superstition of their com- 
panion, whilst he stood smiling on the bank to receive 
them. But alas ! the fates were inexorable; the little 
promontory that supported him had been undermined 
by the water; it gave way beneath his feet, and life- 
was extinct before he could be rescued from the waves. 
This circumstance was related to me by a friend of the 
family. 

Mr. S. was the son of an Irish Bishop, who set some- 
what more value on the things of this world than 
became his function. He had always told his son that 
there was but one thing he could not forgive, and that 
was a bad marriage, meaning by a bad marriage, a poor 
one. As cautions of this sort do riot, by any means, 
prevent young people falling in love, Mr. S. fixed his 
affections on Lady O., a fair young widow, without any 
fortune; and aware that it would be useless to apply 
for his fathers consent, he married her without asking- 
it. They were, consequently, exceedingly poor, and 
indeed, nearly all they y%<\ to live on was a small 
sinecure of forty pounds per annum, which Dean Swift 



42 DREAMING, ETC. 

procured for liim. Whilst in this situation, Mr. S. 
dreamt one night that he was in the cathedral in which 
he had formerly been accustomed to attend service; 
that he saw a stranger, habited as a Bishop, occupying 
his father's throne, and that on applying to the verger 
for an explanation, the man said that the Bishop was 
dead, and that he had expired just as he was adding a 
codicil to his will in his son's favour. The impression 
made by the dream was so strong, that Mr. S. felt that 
he should have no repose till he had obtained news from 
home; and as the most speedy way of doing so was to 
£0 there himseli, he started on horseback, much against 
vhe advice of his wife, who attached no importance 
whatever to the circumstance. He had scarcely 
accomplished half his journey, when he met a courier, 
bearing the intelligence of his father s death; and when 
he reached home, he iound that there was a codicil 
attached to the will of the greatest importance to his 
own future prospects; but the old gentleman had ex- 
pired, with the pen in his hand, just as he was about to 
sign it. 

In this unhappy position, reduced to hopeless indi- 
gence, the friends of the young man proposed that he 
should present himself at the Yice-regal Palace, on the 
next levee day, in hopes that some interest miglrt be 
-excited in his favour; to which, with reluctance he 
consented. As lie was ascending the stairs, he was met 
by a gentleman whose dress indicated that he belonged 
to the Church. 

"Good Heavens I" said he, to the iriend who accom- 
panied him, " Who is that?" 

"That is Mr. , of so and so." 

" Then he will be Bishop of L !" returned Mr. 

S. ; " for that is the man I saw occupying my father's 
throne !" 

"Impossible!*' replied the other; "he has no interest 
whatever, and has no more chance of being a bishop 
than I have." 



DKEAMING, ETC. 43 

u You will see/' replied Mr. S., " I aro. certain he 
will." 

They had made their obeisance above, and were 
returning, when there was a great cry without, and 
everybody rushed to the doors and windows to inquire 
what had happened. The horses attached to the car- 
riage of a young nobleman had become restive, and were 

endangering the life of their master, when Mr. 

rushed forward, and at the peril of his own, seized their 
heads, and afforded Lord C. time to descend before they 
broke through all restraint, and dashed away. Through 
the interest of this nobleman and his friends, to whom 

Mr. had been previously quite unknown, he 

obtained the see of L. These circumstances were 
related to me by a member of the family. 

It would be tedious to relate all the instances of this 
sort of dreaming which have come to my knowledge, 
but were they even much more rare than they are, and 
were there none of a graver and more mysterious kind, 
it might certainly occasion some surprise that they 
should have excited so little attention. When stories 
of this sort are narrated they are listened to with 
wonder for the moment, and then forgotten, and few 
people reflect on the deep significance of the facts, nor 
the important consequences to us involved in the ques- 
tion, of how, with our limited faculties, which cannot 
foretel the events of the next moment, we should sud- 
denly become prophets and seers. 

The following dream, as it regards the fate of a very 
interesting person, and is, I believe, very little known, 
I will relate, though the story is of somewhat an old 
date : — Major Andre, the circumstances of whose 
lamented death are too well known to make it neces- 
sary for me to detail them here, was a friend of Miss 
Seward's,, and, previously to his embarkation for 
America, he made a journey into Derbyshire to pay 
her a visit, and it was arranged that they should ride 
over to see the wonders of the Peak, and introduce 



44 DREAMING, ETC. 

Andre* to Newton, her minstrel, as she called him, and 
to Mr. Cunningham, the curate, who was also a poet. 

Whilst these two gentlemen were awaiting the arrival 
of their guests, of whose intentions they had been 
apprized, Mr. Cunningham mentioned to Newton that 
on the preceding night he had had a very extraordinary 
dream, which he could not get out of his head. He 
had fancied himself in a forest : the place was strange 
to him, and whilst looking about he perceived a horse- 
man approaching at great speed, who had scarcely 
reached the spot where the dreamer stood, when three 
men rushed out of the thicket, and seizing his bridle, 
hurried him away, after closely searching his person. 
The countenance of the stranger being very interesting, 
the sympathy felt by the sleeper for his apparent mis- 
fortune awoke him; but he presently fell asleep again, 
and dreamt that he was standing near a great city 
amongst thousands of people, and that he saw the same 
person he had seen seized in the wood, brought out, 
and suspended to a gallows. When Andre and Miss 
Seward arrived he was horror-struck to perceive that 
his new acquaintance was the antitype of the man in 
the dream. 

Mr. C, a friend of mine, told me the other day that 
he had dreamt he had gone to see a lady of his ac- 
quaintance, and that she had presented him with a 
purse. In the morning he mentioned the circumstance 
to his wife, adding that he wondered what should have 
made him. dream of a person he had not been in any 
way led to think of; and, above all, that she should 
give him a purse. On that same day a letter arrived 
from that lady to Mrs. C, containing a purse, of which 
she begged her acceptance. Here was the imperfect 
foreshadowing of the fact, probably from unsound sleep. 

Another friend lately dreamt, one Thursday night, 
that he saw an acquaintance of his thrown from his 
horse, and that he was lying on the ground with the 
blood streaming from his face, and was much cut. He 



DKEAMING, ETC, 4P 

mentioned his dream in the morning, and being an 
entire disbeliever in such phenomena, he was unable to 
account for the impression made on his mind. This was 
so strong that, on Saturday, he could not forbear calling 
at his friend's house, who he was told was in bed, 
having been thrown from his horse on the previous 
day, and much injured about the face. 

Relations of this description having been more or kss 
familiar to the world in all times and places, and the 
recurrence of the phenomena too frequent to admit of 
their reality being disputed, various theories were pro- 
mulgated to account for them, and indeed there scarcely 
seems to be a philosopher or historian amongst the 
Greeks and Romans who does not make some allusion 
to this ill-understood department of nature, whilst 
amongst the eastern nations the faith in such mysterious 
revelations remains even yet undiminished. Spirits, 
good and evil, or the divinities of the heathen my- 
thology, were generally called in to remove the difficulty, 
though some philosophers, rejecting this supernatural 
interference, sought the explanation in merely physical 
causes. 

In the Druidical rites of the northern nations women 
bore a considerable part: there were priestesses, who 
gave forth oracles and prophecies, much after the 
manner of the Pythonesses of the Grecian temples, and, 
no doubt, drawing their inspiration from the same 
sources, namely, from the influences of magnetism, and 
from narcotics. "When the pure rites of Christianity 
superseded the Heathen forms of worship, tradition 
kept alive the memory of these vaticinations, together 
with some of the arcana of the Druidical groves, and 
hence, in the middle ages, arose a race of so-called 
witches and sorcerers, who were partly impostors and 
partly self-deluded, Nobody thought of seeking the 
explanation of the facts they witnessed in natural 
causes; what had formerly been attributed to the in- 
fluence of the gods was now attributed to the influence 



40 DREAMING, ETC. 

of the devil, and a league with Satan was the universal 
solvent of all difficulties. 

Persecution followed, of course, and men, women, and 
children were offered up to the demon of superstition, 
till the candid and rational part of mankind, taking- 
fright at the holocaust, began to put in their protest, 
and lead out a reaction, which, like all reactions, ran 
right into the opposite extreme. From believing every- 
thing they ceased to believe anything, and after swallow- 
ing unhesitatingly the most monstrous absurdities, 
they relieved themselves of the whole difficulty by 
denying the plainest facts; whilst what it was found 
impossible to deny, was referred to imagination — that 
most abused word, which explained nothing, but left 
the matter as obscure as it was before. Man's spiritual 
nature was forgotten, and what the senses could not 
apprehend, nor the understanding account for, was pro- 
nounced to be impossible. Thank God ! we have lived 
through that age, and, in spite of the struggles of the 
materialistic school, we are fast advancing to a better. 
The traditions of the saints who suffered the most ap- 
palling tortures, and slept or smiled the while, can 
scarcely be rejected now, when we are daily hearing of 
people undergoing frightful opei*ations, either in a state 
of insensibility, or whilst they believe themselves re- 
velling in delight; nor can the psychological intima- 
tions which these facts offer be much longer overlooked. 
One revelation must lead to another, and the wise men 
of the world will, ere long, be obliged to give in their 
adherence to Shakspere's much quoted axiom, and 
confess that " there are more things in Heaven and 
earth than are dreamt of in their philosophy !" 



£7 



CHAPTER IV. 

ALLEGORICAL DREAMS, PRESENTIMENT, ETC. 

It has been the opinion of many philosophers, both 
ancient and modern, that, in the original state of man, 
as he came forth from the hands of his Creator, that 
knowledge which is now acquired by pains and labour 
was intuitive. His material body was given him for 
the purpose of placing him in relation with the mate- 
rial world, and his sensuous organs for the perception of 
material objects; but his soul was a mirror of the uni- 
verse, in which everything was reflected, and, probably, 
is so still, but that the spirit is no longer in a condition 
to perceive it. Degraded in his nature, and distracted 
by the multiplicity of the objects and interests that 
surround him, man has lost his faculty of spiritual 
seeing ; but in sleep, when the body is in a state of 
passivity, and external objects are excluded from us by 
the shutting up of the senses through which we per- 
ceive them, the spirit, to a certain degree freed from 
its impediments, may enjoy somewhat of its original 
privilege. " The soul, which is designed as the mirror 
of a superior spiritual order " (to which it belongs), still 
receives, in dreams, some rays from above, and enjoys 
a foretaste of its future condition; and, whatever 
interpretation may be put upon the history of the Fall, 
few will doubt that before it man must have stood in a 
much more intimate relation to his Creator than he has 
done since. If we admit this, and also that, for the 
above hinted reasons, the soul in sleep may be able to 
exercise somewhat of its original endowment, the pos- 



48 ALLEGORICAL DREAMS, 

sibility of what is called prophetic dreaming may be 
better understood. 

" Seeing in dreams/' says Ennemoser, "is a self- 
illnmining of things, places, and times," for relations of 
time and space form no obstruction to the dreamer; 
things near and far are alike seen in the mirror of the 
soul, according to the connexion m which they stand to 
each other; and as the future is but an unfolding of 
the present, as the present is of the past, one being 
necessarily involved in the other, it is not more difficult 
to the untrammelled spirit to perceive what is to hap- 
pen than what has already happened. Under what 
peculiar circumstances it is that the body and soul fall 
into this particular relative condition we do not know ; 
but that certain families and constitutions are more 
prone to these conditions than others ail experience 
goes to establish. According to the theory of Dr. 
Ennemoser, we should conclude that they are more 
susceptible to magnetic influences, and that the body 
falls into a more complete state of negative polarity. 

In the histories of the Old Testament we constantly 
find instances of prophetic dreaming, and the voice of 
God was chiefly heard by the prophets in sleep ; seem- 
ing to establish that man is, in that state, more suscep- 
tible of spiritual communion, although the being thus 
made the special organ of the divine will may be alto- 
gether a different thing from the mere disfranchisement 
of the embodied spirit in ordinary cases of clear-seeing 
in sleep. Profane history, also, furnishes us with 
various instances of prophetic dreaming, which it is 
unnecessary for me to refer to here. But there is one 
thing very worthy of remark — namely, that the alle- 
gorical character of many of the dreams recorded in 
the Old Testament occasionally pervades those of the 
present day. I have heard of several of this nature, 
and Oberlin, the good pastor of Ban de la Roche, was 
so subject to them, that he fancied he had acquired the 
art of interpreting the symbols. This characteristic of 



PRESENTIMENT, ETC. 4S 

dreaming is in strict conformity with the language of 
the Old Testament, and of the most ancient nations. 
Poets and prophets, heathen and Christian, alike ex- 
press themselves symbolically; and if we believe that 
this language prevailed in the early ages of the world, 
before the external and intellectual life had pre- 
dominated over the instinctive and emotional, we must 
conclude it to be the natural language of man, who 
must, therefore, have been gifted with a conformable 
faculty of comprehending these hieroglyphics; and 
hence it arose that the interpreting of dreams became 
a legitimate art. Long after these instinctive faculties 
were lost, or rather obscured, by the turmoil and dis- 
tractions of sensuous life, the memories and traditions 
of them remained, and hence the superstructure of 
jugglery and imposture that ensued, of which the gip- 
sies form a signal example — in whom, however, there 
can be no doubt that some occasional gleams of this 
original endowment may still be found, as is the case, 
though more rarely, in individuals of all races and con- 
ditions. The whole ot nature is one large book of 
symbols, which, because we have lost the key to it, we 
cannot decipher. "To the first man," says Hainan, 
" whatever his ear heard, his eye saw, or his hand 
touched, was a living word; with this word in his heart 
and in his mouth, the formation of language was easy. 
Man saw things in their essence and properties, and 
named them accordingly." 

There can be no doubt that the heathen forms of 
worship and systems of religion were but the external 
symbols of some deep meanings, and not the idle fables 
that they have been too frequently considered; and it 
is absurd to suppose that the theology which satisfied 
so many great minds, had no better foundation than a 
child's fairy tale. 

A maid servant, who resided many years in a distin- 
guished family in Edinburgh, was repeatedly warned of 
the approaching death of certain, members of that 



50 , ALLEGORICAL DREAMS, 

tamily, by dreaming that one of the walls of the house 
had fallen. Shortly before the head of the family 
sickened and died, she said she had dreamt that the 
main wall had fallen. 

A singular circumstance which occurred in this same 
family, from a member of whom I heard it, is men- 
tioned by Dr. Abercrombie. On this occasion the 
dream was not only prophetic, but the symbol was 
actually translated into fact. 

One of the sons being indisposed with a sore throat, 
a sister dreamt that a watch, of considerable value, 
which she had borrowed from a friend, had stopt; that 
she had awakened another sister and mentioned the 
circumstance, who answered that " something much 
worse had happened, for Charles's breath had stopt." 
She then awoke, in extreme alarm, and mentioned the 
dream to her sister, who, to tranquillize her mind, 
arose and went to the brother's room, where she found 
him asleep and the watch going. The next night, the 
same dream recurred, and the brother was again found 
asleep and the watch going. On the following morning, 
however, this lady was writing a note in the drawing- 
room, with the watch beside her, when, on taking, it 
up, she perceived it had stopped; and she was just on 
the point of calling her sister to mention the circum- 
stance, when she heard a scream from her brother's 
room, and the sister rushed in with the tidings that he 
had just expired. The malady had not been thought 
serious; but a sudden fit of suffocation had unex- 
pectedly proved fatal. 

This case, which is established beyond all controversy, 
is extremely curious in many points of view: the acting 
out of the symbol, especially. Symbolical events of 
this description have been often related, and as often 
laughed at. It is easy to laugh at what we do not un- 
derstand; and it gives us the advantage of making the 
timid narrator ashamed of his fact, so that if he do 



PRESENTIMENT, ETC. 51 

not wholly suppress it, he at least insures himself by 
laughing too, the next time he relates it. It is said 
that Goethe's clock stopt at the moment he died; and 
I have heard repeated instances of this strange kind of 
synchronism, or magnetism, if it be by magnetism that 
we are to account for the mystery. One was told me 
very lately by a gentleman to whom the circumstance 
occurred. 

On the 16th of August, 1769, Frederick II. of 
Prussia is said to have dreamt, that a star fell from 
heaven, and occasioned such an extraordinary glare that 
he could with great difficulty find his way through it. 
He mentioned the dream to his attendants, and it was 
afterwards observed that it was on that day Napoleon 
was born. 

A lady, not long since, related to me the following 
circumstance : — Her mother, who was at the time 
residing in Edinburgh, in a house, one side of which 
looked into a wynd, whilst the door was in the High- 
street, dreamt that, it being Sunday morning, she had 
heard a sound, which had attracted her to the window; 
and, whilst looking out, had dropt a ring from her 
finger into the wynd below. That she had, thereupon, 
gone down in her night clothes to seek it; but when 
she had reached the spot, it was not to be found. 
Returning, extremely vexed at her loss, as she re- 
entered her own door she met a respectable looking 
young man, carrying some loaves of bread. On ex- 
pressing her astonishment at finding a stranger there 
at so unseasonable an hour, he answered, by expressing 
iiis at seeing her hi such a situation. She said she had 
dropped her ring, and had been round the corner to 
seek it ; whereupon, to her delighted surprise, he pre- 
sented her with her lost treasure. Some months 
afterwards, being at a party, she recognised the young 
man seen in her dream, and learnt that he was a baker. 
He took no particular notice of her on that occasion; 



52 ALLEGORICAL DREAMS. 

and, I think, two years elapsed before she met him 
again. This second meeting, however, led to an ac- 
quaintance, which terminated in marriage. 

Here the ring and the bread are curiously emblematic 
of the marriage, and the occupation of the future 
husband. 

Miss L., residing at Dalkeith, dreamt that her bro- 
ther, who was ill, called her to his bedside, and gave 
her a letter, which he desired her to carry to their aunt, 
Mrs. H., with the request that she would deliver it to 
John, (John was another brother, who had died previ- 
ously, and Mrs. H. was at the time ill.) He added 
that, " he himself was going there also, but that Mrs. 
H. would be there before him." Accordingly, Miss L. 
went, in her dream, with the letter to Mrs. H., whom 
she found dressed in white, and looking quite radiant 
and happy. She took the letter, saying she was going 
there directly, and would deliver it. 

On the following morning, Miss L. learnt that her 
aunt had died in the night. The brother died some 
little time afterwards. 

A gentleman who had been a short time visiting 
Edinburgh, was troubled with a cough, which, though 
it occasioned him no alarm, he resolved to go home to 
nurse. On the first night of his arrival, he dreamt that 
one half of the house was blown away. His bailing 
who resided at a distance, dreamt the same dream on 
the same night. The gentleman died within a few 
weeks. 

" This symbolical language which the Deity appears 
to have used," (witness Peter's dream, Acts ii., and 
others), " in all his revelations to man, is in the highest 
degrees, what poetry is in a lower, and the language 
of dreams, in the lowest, namely, the original natural 
language of man; and we may fairly ask whether this 
language, which here plays an inferior part, be not pos- 
sibly the proper language of a higher sphere, whilst we, 
who vainly think ourselves awake, are in reality buried 



DREAMS AND PRESENTIMENTS. 53 

m. a deep, deep sleep, in which, like dreamers who ini- 
jerfectly hear the voices of those around them, we 
occasionally apprehend, though obscurely, a few words 
of this Divine tongue." ( Vide Schubert.) 

This subject of sleeping and waking is a very curious 
one, and might give rise to strange questionings. In 
the case of those patients above mentioned, who seem 
to have two different spheres of existence, who shall 
say which is the waking one, or whether either of them 
be so? The speculations of Mr. Dove on this subject 
merited more attention, I think, than they met with, 
when he lectured in Edinburgh. He maintained that, 
long before he had paid any attention to magnetism, 
he had arrived at the conclusion that there are as 
many states or conditions of mind beyond sleep, as 
there are on this side of it; passing through the different 
stages of dreaming, reverie, contemplation, &c., up to 
perfect vigilance. However this be, in this world of 
appearance, where we see nothing as it is, and where, 
both as regards our moral and physical relations, we 
live in a state of continual delusion, it is impossible 
for us to pronounce on this question. It is a common 
remark that some people seem to live in a dream, and 
never to be quite awake; and the most cursory observer 
cannot fail to have been struck with examples of persons 
in this condition, especially in the aged. 

With respect to this allegorical language, Ennemoser 
observes that, " since no dreamer learns it of another, 
and still less from those who are awake, it must be 
natural to all men." How different, too, is its compre- 
hensiveness and rapidity to our ordinary language I 
"We are accustomed, and with justice, to wonder at 
the admirable mechanism by which, without fatigue 
or exertion, we communicate with our fellow-beings; 
but how slow and ineffective is human speech, compared 
to this spiritual picture-language, where a whole history 
is understood at a glance ! and scenes that seem to 
occupy days and weeks, are acted out in ten minutes. 
It is remarkable that this hieroglyphic language appears 



64 DREAMS AND PRESENTIMENTS. 

:o be the same amongst all people; and that the dream 
/interpreters of all countries construe the signs alike. 
Thus, the dreaming of deep water denotes trouble, and 
pearls are a sign of tears. 

I have heard of a lady who, whenever a misfortune 
was impending, dreamt that she saw a large fish. One 
night she dreamt that this fish had bitten two of hex 
little boy's fingers. Immediately afterwards a school- 
fellow ot the child's injured those two very fingers by 
striking him with a hatchet: and I have met with 
several persons who have learnt by experience to con- 
sider one particular dream as the certain prognostic of 
misfortune. 

A lady, who had left the West Indies when six 
years old, came one night, fourteen years afterwards, 
to her sister's bedside, and said, " I know my uncle is 
dead. I have dreamt that I saw a number of slaves in 
the large store-room at Barbadoes, with long brooms 
sweeping down immense cobwebs. I complained to my 
aunt, and she covered her face and said, ' Yes, he is 
no sooner gone than they disobey him.' " It was 
afterwards ascertained that Mr. P. had died on that 
night; and that he had never permitted the cobwebs in 
this room to be swept away, of which, however, the lady 
assures me she knew nothing; nor could she or her 
friends conceive what was meant by the symbol of the 
cobwebs, till they received the explanation subsequently 
from a member of the family. 

The following very curious allegorical dream I give, 
not in the words of the dreamer, but in those of hel 
son, who bears a name destined, I trust, to a long im- 
mortality: — 

u Wooer's Alley-Cottage, 
i( Dunfermline-in-the- Woods, 

" Monday Morning, 31rt May, 1847. 

Dear Mrs. Crowe, 

" That dream of my mother s was as follows : — She 
stood in a long, dark, empty gallery: on her one si<te 



DREAMS AND PRESENTIMENTS. 55 

was my father, and on the other my eldest sister. 
Amelia; then myself, and the rest of the family accord- 
ing to their ages. At the foot of the hall stood my 
younger sister, Alexes, and above her my sister Ca- 
therine — a creature, by the way, in person and mind 
more like an angel of heaven than an inhabitant of 
earth. We all stood silent and motionless. At last 
It entered — the unimagined something that, casting Its 
grim shadow before, had enveloped? all the trivialities 
of the preceding dream in the stifling atmosphere ol 
terror. It entered, stealthily descending the three steps 
that led from the entrance down into the chamber of 
horror: and my mother felt It was Death. He was 
dwarfish, bent, and shrivelled. He carried on his 
shoulder a heavy axe; and had come, she thought, to 
destroy 'all her little ones at one fell swoop/ On 
the entrance of the shape, my sister Alexes leapt 
out of the rank, interposing herself between him and 
my mother. He raised his axe and aimed a blow at 
Catherine: a blow which, to her horror, my mother 
could not intercept; though she had snatched up a three- 
legged stool, the sole furniture of the apartment, for 
that purpose. She could not, she felt, fling the stool at 
the figure without destroying Alexes, who kept shoot- 
ing out and in between her and the ghastly thing. 
She tried in vain to scream; she besought my father, in 
agony, to avert the impending stroke; but he did not 
hear, or did not heed her; and stood motionless, as in a 
trance. Down came the axe, and poor Catherine fell 
in her blood, cloven to 'the white ha)se bane.' Again 
the axe was lifted, by the inexorable shadow, over the 
head of my brother, who stood next in the line. 
Alexes had somewhere disappeared behind the ghastly 
visitant; and, with a scream, my mother £ ung the fort- 
stool at his head. He vanished, and she awoke. This 
dream left on my mother's mind a fearful apprehension 
of impending misfortune, ' which would not pass away/ 
It was murder she feared; and her suspicions were no- 



56 DREAMS AND PRESENTIMENTS. 

allayed by the discovery that a man — some time before 
discarded by my father for bad conduct, and with whom 
she had. somehow, associated the Death ot her dream — 
had been lurking about the place, and sleeping in an 
adjoining outhouse on the night it occurred, and for 
some nights previous and subsequent to it. Her terror 
increased; sleep forsook her; and every night, when the 
house was still, she arose and stole, sometimes with 
a candle, sometimes, in the dark, from room to room, 
listening, in a sort of waking night-mare, for the 
breathing of the assassin, who she imagined was lurking 
in some one of them. This could not last. She 
reasoned with herself; but her terror became intolerable, 
and she related her dream to my father, who of course 
called her a fool for her pains — whatever might be his 
real opinion of the matter. Three months had elapsed, 
when, we children were all of us seized with scarlet 
fever. My sister Catherine died almost immediately — 
sacrificed, as my mother in her misery thought, to her 
(my mother's) over anxiety for Alexes, whose danger 
seemed more imminent. The dream-prophecy was in 
part fulfilled. I also was at death's door — given up by 
the doctors, but not by my mother: she was confident 
of my recovery; but for my brother, who was scarcely 
considered in danger at all, but on whose head she had 
seen the visionary axe impending, her fears were great; 
for she could not recollect whether the blow had, or 
had not, descended when the spectre vanished. My 
brother recovered, but relapsed, and barely escaped 
with life; but Alexes did not. For a year and ten 
months the poor child lingered; and almost every night 
I had to sing her asleep; often, I remember, through 
bitter tears, for I knew she was dying, and I loved her 
the more as she wasted away. I held her little hand 
as she died; I followed her to the grave — the last 
thing that I have loved on earth. And the dream was 
fulfilled. " True and sincerely yours, 

" J. Noel Paton." 



DREAMS AND PRESENTIMENTS. 57 

The dreaming of coffins and funerals, when a death 
is impending, must be considered as examples of this 
allegorical language. Instances of this kind are ex- 
tremely numerous. Not unfrequently the dreamer, as 
in cases of second sight, sees either the body in the 
coffin, so as to be conscious of who is to die; or else, is 
made aware of it from seeing the funeral procession at 
a certain house, or from some other significant circum- 
stance. This faculty which has been supposed to belong 
peculiarly to the Highlanders of Scotland, appears to be 
fully as well known in Wales and on the continent, 
especially in Germany. 

The language of dreams, however, is not always sym- 
bolical. Occasionally, the scene that is transacting at 
a distance, or that is to be acted at some future period, 
is literally presented to the sleeper, as things appear to 
be presented in many cases of second sight, and also in 
clairvoyance; and, since we suppose him, that is, the 
sleeper, to be in a temporarily magnetic state,, we must 
conclude that the degree of perspicuity, or transiucency 
of the vision, depends on the degree of that state. 
Nevertheless, there are considerable difficulties attend- 
ing this theory. A great proportion of the prophetic 
dreams we hear of are connected with the death of 
some friend or relative. Some, it is true, regard unim- 
portant matters as visits, and so forth ; but this is gene- 
rally, though not exclusively, the case only with per- 
sons who have a constitutional tendency to this kind 
of dreaming, and with whom it is frequent ; but it is 
not uncommon for those who imve not discovered any 
such tendency to be made aware of a death; and the 
number of dreams of this description I meet with is 
very considerable. Now, it is difficult to conceive what 
the condition is that causes this perception of an ap- 
proaching death; or why, supposing as we have sug- 
gested above, that when the senses sleep the untram- 
melled spirit sees, the memory of this revelation, if I 
may so call it, so much more frequently survives than 



S3 DREAMS AND PRESENTIMENTS. 

any other; unless, indeed, it be the force of the shock 
sustained, which shock, it is to be remarked, always 
wakes the sleeper ; and this may be the reason that, if 
he fall asleep again, the dream is almost invariably 
repeated. 

I could fill pages with dreams of this description 
which have come to my knowledge, or been recorded 
by others. 

Mr. H., a gentleman with whom I am acquainted, a 
man engaged in active business, and apparently as little 
likely as any one I ever knew to be troubled with a 
faculty of this sort, dreamt that he saw a certain 
friend of his dead. The dream was so like reality, that, 
although he had no reason whatever to suppose his 
friend ill, he could not forbear sending in the morning 
to inquire for him. The answer returned was, that Mr. 
A. was out, and was quite well. The impression, how- 
ever, was so vivid, that although he had nearly three 
miles to send, Mr. H. ielt that he could not start for 
Glasgow, whither business called him, without making 
another inquiry. This time his friend was at home, 
and answered for himself, that he was very well, and 
that somebody must have been hoaxing EL, and mak- 
ing him believe otherwise. Mr. H. set out on his 
journey, wondering at his own anxiety, but unable to 
conquer it. He was absent but a few days — I think 
three ; and the first news he heard on his return was, 
that his friend had been seized with an attack of in- 
flammation, and was dead. 

A German professor lately related to a friend of 
mine, that being some distance from home, he dreamt 
that his lather was dying, and was calling for him. 
The dream being repeated, he was so far impressed as 
to alter his plans, and return home, where he arrived 
in time to receive his parent's last breath. He was in- 
formed that the dying man had been calling upon his 
name repeatedly, in deep anguish at his absence. 

A parallel case to this is that of Mr. li. E. S. ; an 



DREAMS AND PRESENTIMENTS. 59 

accountant in Edinburgh, and a shrewd man of busi- 
ness, who relates the following circumstance as occur- 
ring to himself. He is a native of Dalkeith, and was 
residing there, when being about fifteen years of age, 
he left home on a Saturday, to spend a few days with 
a friend at Prestonpans. On the Sunday night, he 
dreamt that his mother was extremely ill, and started 
out of his sleep with an impression that he must go to 
her immediately. He even got out of bed with the 
intention of doing so, but reflecting that he had left 
her quite well, and that it was only a dream, he re- 
turned to bed, and again fell asleep. But the dream 
returned, and unable longer to control his anxiety, he 
arose, dressed himself in the dark, quitted the house, 
leaping the railings that surrounded it, and made the 
best of his way to Dalkeith. On reaching home, which 
he did before daylight, he tapped at the kitchen win- 
dow, and on gaining admittance, was informed that on 
the Saturday evening after he had departed, his mother 
had been seized with an attack of British cholera, and 
was lying above extremely ill. She had been lamenting 
his absence extremely, and had scarcely ceased crying, 
" Oh, Balph, Ralph ! what a grief that you are away 1" 

At nine o'clock he was admitted to her room; but 
she was no longer in a condition to recognise him, and 
she died within a day or two. Instances of this sort 
are numerous ; but it would be tedious to narrate them, 
especially as there is little room for variety in the de- 
tails. I shall, therefore, content myself with giving one 
or two specimens of each class, confining my examples 
to such as have been communicated to myself, except 
where any case of particular interest leads me to deviate 
from this plan. The frequency of such phenomena may 
be imagined, when I mention that the instances I shall 
give, with few exceptions, have been collected with 
little trouble, and without seeking, beyond my own 
small circle of acquaintance. 

In the family of the above-named gentleman, Mr, 

B 



60 DREAMS AND PRESENTIMENTS. 

It. E. S., there probably existed a faculty of presents 
ment; for in the year 1810, his elder brother being 
assistant-surgeon on board the Gorgon war-brig, his 
father dreamt that he was promoted to the Sparrow- 
hawk — a ship he had then never heard of; neither had 
the family received any intelligence of the young man 
for several months. He told his dream, and was well 
laughed at for his pains; but in a few weeks a letter 
arrived announcing the promotion to a ship so called. 

When Lord Burghersh was giving theatrical parties 
at Florence, a lady, Mrs. M., whose presence was 
very important, excused herself one evening, being 
in great alarm from having dreamt in the night that 
her sister in England was dead, which proved to be the 
fact. 

Mr. "W., a young man at Glasgow College, not long 
since dreamt that his aunt in Russia was dead. He 
noted the date of his dream on the window-shutter 
of his chamber. In a short time the news of the 
lady's death arrived. The dates however did not ac- 
cord ; but on mentioning the circumstance to a friend, 
he was reminded that the adherence of the Russians to 
the old style reconciled the difference. 

A man of business in Glasgow lately dreamt that 
he saw a coffin, on which was inscribed the name of a 
friend, with the date of his death. Some time after- 
wards he was summoned to attend the funeral of that 
person, who at the time of the dream was in good 
health, and he was struck with surprise on seeing the 
plate of the coffin bearing the very date he had seen in 
his dream. 

A French gentleman, Monsieur de V., dreamt some 
years since that he saw a tomb, on which he read, 
very distinctly, the following date — 23rd June, 184-; 
there were also some initials, but so much effaced that 
he could not make them out. He mentioned the cir- 
cumstance to his wife, and for some time they could 
not help dreading the recurrence of the ominous month; 



DREAMS AND PRESENTIMENTS. 6 J. 

6ut, as year after year passed, and nothing happened, 
they had ceased to think of it, when at last the symbol 
was explained. On the 23rd of June, 1846, their 
only daughter died, at the age of seventeen. 

Thus far the instances I have related seem to re- 
solve themselves into cases of simple clairvoyance, or 
second sight, in sleep, although, in using these word^ 
I am very far from meaning to imply that I explain 
the thing, or unveil its mystery. The theory above 
alluded to seems as yet the only one applicable to the 
facts, namely, that the external senses, being placed 
in a negative and passive state, the universal sense of 
the immortal spirit within, which sees and hears, and 
knows, or rather in one word, perceives, without organs, 
becomes more or less free to work unclogged. That the 
soul is a mirror in which the spirit sees all things 
reflected, is a modification of this theory; but I con- 
fess I find myself unable to attach any idea to this 
latter form of expression. Another view, which I 
have heard suggested by an eminent person, is, that if 
it be true, as maintained by Dr. Wigan, and some other 
physiologists, that our brains are double, it is possible 
that a polarity may exist between the two sides, by 
means of which the negative side may, under certain 
circumstances, become a mirror to the positive. It 
seems difficult to reconcile this notion with the fact, that 
these perceptions occur most frequently when the brain 
is asleep, How far the sleep is perfect and general, 
however, we can never know; and, of course, when the 
powers of speech and locomotion continue to be ex- 
ercised, we are aware that it is only partial, in a more 
or less degree. In the case of magnetic sleepers, ob- 
servation shows us, that the auditory nerves are aroused 
by being addressed, and fall asleep again as soon as they 
are left undisturbed. In most cases of natural sleep, 
the same processes, if the voice were heard at all, would 
disperse sleep altogether; and it must be remembered 
+ hat ; as Dr. Holland says, sleep is a fluctuating con- 



C2 PRESENTIMENT. 

diiion, varying from one moment to another, and this 
allowance must be made when considering magnetic 
sleep also. 

It is by this theory of the duality of the brain, which 
seems to have many arguments in its favour, and the 
alternate sleeping and waking of the two sides, that Dr. 
"VYigan seeks to account for the state of double or alter- 
nate consciousness above alluded to; and also for that 
strange sensation which most people have experienced, 
of having witnessed a scene, or heard a conversation, 
at some indefinite period before, or even at some earlier 
Btate of existence. He thinks that one-half of the 
brain being in a more active condition than the other, 
it takes cognizance of the scene first; and that thus the 
perceptions of the second, when they take place, ap- 
pears to be a repetition of some former experiences. I 
confess this theory, as regards this latter phenomenon, 
is to me eminently unsatisfactory, and it is especially 
defective in not accounting for one of the most curious 
particulars connected with it, namely, that on these 
occasions people not only seem to recognise the circum- 
stances as having been experienced before, but they 
have, very frequently, an actual foreknowledge of what 
will be next said or done. 

Now, the explanation of this mystery, I incline to 
think, may possibly lie in the hypothesis I have suggested ; 
namely, that in profound, and what appears to us gene- 
rally to have been dreamless sleep, we are clear-seers. 
The map of coming events lies open before us, the spirit 
surveys it; but with the awaking of the sensuous 
organs, this dream-life, with its aerial excursions, passes 
away; and we are translated into our other sphere of 
existence. But, occasionally, some flash of recollection, 
some ray of light, from this visionary world, in which 
we have been living, breaks in upon our external ob- 
jective existence, and we recognise the locality, the 
roice, the very words, as being but a re-acting of some 
foregone scenes of a drama. 



PRESENTIMENT. 63 

The faculty of presentiment, of which everybody 
must have heard instances, seems to have some affinity 
to the phenomenon last referred to. I am acquainted 
with a lady, in whom this faculty is in some degree 
developed, who has evinced it by a consciousness of the 
moment when a death was taking place in her family, 
or amongst her connexions, although she does not know 
who it is that has departed. I have heard of several 
cases of people hurrying home from a presentiment of 
fire; and Mr. M. of Calderwood was once, when absent 
from home, seized with such an anxiety about his 
family, that, without being able in any way to account 
for it, he felt himself impelled to fly to them and re- 
move them from the house they were inhabiting ; one 
wing of which fell down immediately afterwards. ISTo 
notion of such a misfortune had ever before occurred 
to him, nor was there any reason whatever to expect 
it ; the accident originating from some defect in the 
foundations. 

A. circumstance, exactly similar to this, is related by 
Stilling, of Professor Bohm, teacher of mathematics at 
Marburg; who being one evening in company, was* 
suddenly seized with a conviction that he ought to go 
home. As, however, he was very comfortably taking 
his tea, and had nothing to do at home, he resisted the 
admonition ; but it returned with such force that at 
length he was obliged to yield. On reaching his house, he 
found everything as he had left it ; but he now felt himself 
urged to remove his bed from the corner in which it 
stood to another; but as it had always stood there, he 
resisted this impulsion also. However, the resistance 
was vain, absurd as it seemed, he felt he must do it ; 
so he summoned the maid, and, with her ad, drew the 
bed to the other side of the room; after which he felt 
quite at ease and returned to spend the rest of the 
evening with his friends. At ten o'clock the party 
broke up, and he retired home and went to bed and to 
deep. In the middle of the night, he was awakened 



64 PRESENTIMENT. 

by a loud crash, and on looking out, lie saw that a 
large beam bad fallen, bringing part of the ceiling with 
it, and was lying exactly on the spot his bed had 
occupied. 

A young servant girl in this neighbourhood, who had 
been several years in an excellent situation, where she 
was much esteemed, was suddenly seized with a presents 
ment that she was wanted at home; and, in spite of 
all representations, she resigned her place, and set out 
on her journey thither; where, when she arrived, she 
found her parents extremely ill, one of them mortally, 
and in the greatest need of her services. No intelli- 
gence of their illness had reached her, nor could she 
herself in any way account for the impulse. I have 
heard of numerous well authenticated cases of people 
escaping drowning from being seized with an unac- 
countable presentiment of evil when there were no 
external signs whatever to justify the apprehension. 
The story of Cazotte, as related by La Harpe, is a very 
remarkable instance of this sort of faculty; and seems 
to indicate a power resembling that possessed by 
•Zschokke, who relates of himself, in his autobiography, 
that, frequently whilst conversing with a stranger, the 
whole circumstances of that person's previous life were 
revealed to him, even comprising details of places and 
persons. In the case of Cazotte, it was the future that 
was laid open to him, and he foretold to a company of 
eminent persons, in the year 1718, the fate which 
awaited each individual, himself included, in consequence 
of the revolution then commencing. As this story is 
already in print, I forbear to relate it. 

One of the most remarkable cases of presentiment I 
know is that which occurred, not very long since, on 
board one of her Majesty's ships, when lying off Ports- 
mouth. The officers being one day at the mess-table, a 
young Lieutenant P. suddenly laid down his knife and 
fork, pushed away his plate, and turned extremely pale. 
He then rose from the table, covering his face with his 



PRESENTIMENT. 65 

hands, and retired from the room. The president of 
the mess, supposing him to be ill, sent one of the young 
men to inquire what was the matter. At first Mr. P. 
was unwilling to speak, but, on being pressed, he con- 
fessed that he had been seized by a sudden and irresis- 
tible impression that a brother he had then in India was 
dead. "He died," said he, " on the 12th of August, at 
six o'clock; I am perfectly certain of it 1" No argu- 
ments could overthrow this conviction, which, in due 
course of post, was verified to the letter. The young 
man had died at Cawnpore, at the precise period men- 
tioned. 

When any exhibition of this sort of faculty occurs in 
animals, which is by no means unfrequent, it is termed 
instinct; and we look upon it, as what it probably is, 
only another and more rare development of that intui- 
tive knowledge which enables them to seek their food, 
and perform the other functions necessary to the main- 
tenance of their existence, and the continuance of their 
race. Now, it is remarkable, that the life of an animal 
is a sort of dream-life; their ganglionic system is more 
developed than that of man, and the cerebral, less; and 
since it is doubtless, from the greater development of 
the ganglionic system in women, that they exhibit 
more frequent instances of such abnormal phenomena 
as I am treating of, than men, we may be, perhaps, 
justified in considering the faculty of presentiment in a 
human being as a suddenly awakened instinct; just as 
in an animal, it is an intensified instinct. 

Everybody has either witnessed or heard of instances 
of this sort of presentiment, in dogs especially. For 
the authenticity of , the following anecdote I can vouch; 
the traditions being very carefully preserved in the 
family concerned, from whom I have it. In the last 
century, Mr. P., a member of this family, who had 
involved himself in some of the stormy affairs of this 
northern part of the island, was one day surprised by 
seeing a favourite dog that was lying at his feet, start 



66 PRESENTIMENT. 

suddenly up and seize him by the knee, which he pulled 
— not with violence, but in a manner that indicated a 
wish that his master should follow him to the door. 
The gentleman resisted the invitation for some time; 
till at length the perseverance of the animal arousing 
his curiosity, he yielded, and was thus conducted by the 
dog into the most sequestered part of a neighbouring 
thicket, where, however, he could see nothing to 
account for his dumb friend's proceeding, who now lay 
himself down, quite satisfied, and seemed to wish his 
master to follow the example: which, determined to 
pursue the adventure and rind out. if possible, what was 
meant, he did. A considerable time now elapsed before 
the dog would consent to his masters going home; but 
at length he arose and led the way thither, when the 
first news Mr. P. heard was, that a party of soldiers 
had been there in quest of him ; and he was shown the 
marks of their spikes, which had been thrust through 
the bed-clothes in then search. He fled, and ulti- 
mately escaped; his life being thus preserved by Iris dog. 
Some years ago, at Plymouth I had a brown spaniel 
that regularly, with great delight, accompanied my son 
and his nurse in their morning's walk. One day, she 
came to complain to me that Tiger would not go out 
with them. Nobody could conceive the reason of so 
unusual a caprice; and, unfortunately, we did uot yield 
to it, but forced him to go. In less than a quarter of 
an hour he was brought back, so torn to pieces, by a 
ravage dog which had just come ashore from a foreign 
vessel, that it was found necessary to shoot him imme- 
diately. 



67 



CHAPTER T. 

WARNINGS. 

This comparison, betwixt the power of presentiment in 
a human being and the instincts of an animal, may "be 
offensive to some people; but it must be admitted, that, 
as far as we can see, the manifestation is the same, 
whatever be the cause. Now, the body of an animal 
must be informed by an immaterial principle — let us 
call it soul or spirit, or anything else; for it is evident 
that their actions are not the mere result of organiza- 
tion; and all I mean to imply is, that this faculty of 
fore-seeing must be inherent in intelligent spirit, let it 
be lodged in what form of flesh it may; whilst, with 
regard to what instinct is, we are, in the meanwhile, in 
extreme ignorance. Instinct being a word which, like 
Imagination, everybody uses and nobody understands. 
Ennemoser and Schubert believe, that the instinct by 
which animals seek their food consists in polarity, but 
I have met with only two modern theories which 
pretend to explain the phenomena of presentiment; the 
one is that the person is in a temporarily magnetic 
state and that the presentiment is a kind of clairvoyance. 
That the faculty, like that of prophetic dreaming, is 
constitutional, and chiefly manifested in certain families, 
is well established; and the very unimportant events, 
such as visits, and so forth, on which it frequently 
exercises itself, forbid us to seek an explanation in a 
higher source. It seems, also, to be quite independent 
of the will of the subject, as it was in the case of 
Zschokke, who found himself thus let into the secieta 



68 WA.KNXNGS. 

of persons in whom lie felt no manner of interest, 
whilst, where the knowledge might have been of use to 
him, he could not command it. The theory ol one-haK 
of the brain in a negative state, serving as a mirror to 
the other half, if admitted at all, may answer as well, ot 
better, for these waking presentiments, than for clear- 
seeing in dreams. But, for my own part, I incline 
very much to the views of that school of philosophers 
who adopt the first and more spiritual theory, which 
seems to me to offer few difficulties, whilst, as regards 
our present nature, and our future hopes, it is certainly 
more satisfactory. Once admitted that the body is but 
the temporary dwelling of an immaterial spirit, the 
machine through which, and by which, in its normal 
states, the spirit alone can manifest itself, I cannot see 
any great difficulty in conceiving that, in certain con- 
ditions of that body, their relations may be modified, 
and that the spirit may perceive, by its own inherent 
faculty, without the aid of its material vehicle; and, as 
this condition of the body may arise from causes purely 
physical, we see at once why the revelations frequently 
regard such unimportant events. 

Plutarch, in his dialogue betwixt Lamprius and 
Ammonius, observes, that if the Daemons, or protecting 
spirits, that watch over mankind are disembodied souls, 
we ought not to doubt that those spirits, even when in 
the flesh, possessed the faculties they now enjoy, since 
we have no reason to suppose that any new ones are 
conferred at the period of dissolution; for these faculties 
must be inherent, although temporarily obscured, and 
weak and ineffective in their manifestations. As 
it is not when the sun breaks from behind the clouds 
that he first -begins to shine, so it is not when the 
soul issues from the body, as from a cloud that envelopes 
it, that it first attains the power of looking into the 
future. 

But the events foreseen are not always unimportant^ 
nor is the mode of the communication always of the 



WARNINGS. G9 

same nature. I have mentioned above, some instances 
wherein danger was avoided, and there are many of the 
same kind recorded in various works; and it is the 
number of instances of this description, corroborated 
by the universal agreement of all somnambulists of a 
higher order, which has induced a considerable section 
of the German psychologists to adopt the doctrine of 
guardian spirits — a doctrine which has prevailed, more 
or less, in all ages; and has been considered by many 
theologians to be supported by the Bible. There is in 
this country, and I believe in France also, though with 
more exceptions, such an extreme aversion to admit the 
possibility of anything like what is called supernatural 
agency, that the mere avowal of such a persuasion is 
enough to discredit one's understanding with a con- 
siderable part of the world ; not excepting those who 
profess to believe in the Scriptures. Yet, even apart 
from this latter authority, T cannot see anything repug- 
nant to reason in such a belief. As far as we see of 
nature, there is a continued series from the lowest to 
the highest; and what right have we to conclude that 
we are the last link of the chain? Why may there 
not be a gamut of beings'? That such should be the 
case, is certainly in accordance with all that we see; 
and that we do not see them, affords, as I have said 
above, not a shadow of argument against their existence ; 
man, immersed in business and pleasure, living only his 
sensuous life, is too apt to forget how limited those 
senses are, how merely designed for a temporary pur- 
pose, and how much may exist of which they can take 
no cognizance. 

The possibility admitted, the chief arguments against 
the probability of such a guardianship, are the inter- 
ference it implies with the free-will of man, on the one 
iiand, and the rarity of this interference on the other. 
. With respect to the first matter of free-will, it is a 
subject of acknowledged difficulty, and beyond the 
scope of my work. Nobody can honestly look back 



J WARNINGS. 

upon his past life without feeling perplexed by the 
question, of how far he was, or was not able, at the 
moment, to resist certain impulsions, which caused him 
to commit wrong or imprudent actions; and it must, 
I fear, ever remain a qnwstio vexata how far our 
virtues and vices depend upon our organization: an 
Drganization whose constitution is beyond our own 
power, in the first instance, although we may certainlj 
improve or deteriorate it; but which we must admit, 
at the same time, to be, in its present deteriorated form, 
the ill result of the world's corruption, and the inherited 
penalty of the vices of our predecessors; whereby the 
sins of the fathers are visited upon the children unto 
the third and fourth generation. 

There is, as the Scriptures say, but one way to salva- 
tion, though there are many to perdition, that is, 
though there are many wrongs, there is only one right; 
for truth is one, and our true liberty consists in being 
free to follow it; lor we cannot imagine that anybody 
seeks his own perdition, and nobody, I conceive, loves 
vice for its own sake, as others love virtue, that is, 
because it is vice; so that when they follow its dictates, 
we must conclude that they are not free, but in bondage, 
whose ver bond- slave they be, whether of an evil spirit, 
or of their own organization; and, I think, every human 
being who looks into himself will feel, that he is, in 
effect, then oyAj free when he is obeying the dictates of 
virtue; and that the language of Scripture, which speaks 
of sin as a bondage, is not only metaphorically^ but 
literally true. 

The warning a person of an impending danger or 
error, implies no constraint; the subject of the warning 
is free to take the hint or not, as he pleases; we receive 
many cautions, both from other people and from our 
own consciences, which we refuse to benefit by. 

With regard to the second objection, it seems to have 
greater weight; for although the instances of presenti- 
ment am very numerous taken apart, they are certainly, 



WARNINGS, 71 

as far as we know, still but exceptional eases. But 
here we must remember, that an influence of this sort 
might be very continuously, though somewhat remotely, 
exercised in favour of an individual, without the occur- 
rence of any instance of so striking a nature as to 
render the interference manifest: and certain it is, that 
some people — I have met with several — and very 
sensible persons, too, have all their lives an intuitive 
persuasion of such a guardianship existing in relation 
to themselves. That in our normal states it was not 
intended we should hold sensible communion with the 
invisible world, seems evident; but nature abounds in 
exception s; and there may be conditions regarding both 
parties, the incorporated and the unincorporated spirit, 
which may at times bring them into a more intimate 
relation. No one who believes that consciousness 
is to survive the death of the body, can doubt that the 
released spirit will then hold communion with its con- 
geners; it being the fleshly tabernacles we inhabit which 
alone disables us from doing so at present; but since 
the constitutions of bodies vary exceedingly, not only 
in different individuals, but in the same individuals at 
different times, may we not conceive the possibility of 
there existing conditions, which by diminishing the 
obstructions, render this communion practicable within 
certain limits 1 For there, certainly, are recorded and 
authentic instances of presentiments and warnings, that 
with difficulty admit of any other explanation; and 
that these admonitions are more frequently received in 
a state of sleep than of vigilance, rather furnishes an 
additional argument in favour of the last hypothesis; 
for if there be any foundation for the theories above 
suggested, it is then, that the sensuous functions being 
in abeyance, and the external life thereby shut out from 
us, the spirit would be most susceptible to the operations 
of spirit, whether of our deceased friends or of appointed 
ministers, if such there be. Jung Stilling is of opinion 
that we must decide from the Aim and object of the 



72 WARNINGS. 

revelation, whether it be a mere development of the 
faculty of presentiment, or a case of spiritual interven* 
tion; but this would surely be a very erroneous mode 
of judging, since the presentiment that foresees a visit, 
may foresee a danger, and show us how to avoid it, as in 
the following instance: — 

A few years ago, Dr. W., now residing at Glasgow, 
dreamt that he received a summons to attend a patient 
at a place some miles from where he was living; that 
he started on horseback, and that as he was crossing a 
moor, he saw a bull making furiously at him, whose 
horns he only escaped by taking refuge on a spot 
inaccessible to the animal; where he waited a long time, 
till some people, observing his situation, came to his 
assistance and released him. Whilst at breakfast, on 
the following morning, the summons came; and, smiling 
at the odd coincidence, he started on horseback. He 
was quite ignorant of the road he had to go; but by 
and by he arrived at the moor, which he recognised, 
and presently the bull appeared, coming full tilt towards 
him. But his dream had shown him the place of refuge, 
for which he instantly made; and there he spent three 
or four hours, besieged by the animal, till the country 
people set him free. Dr. W. declares, that but for the 
dream, he should not have known in what direction to 
run for safety. 

A butcher named Bone, residing at Holytown, 
dreamt, a few years since, that he was stopped at a 
particular spot on his way to market, whither he was 
going on the following day to purchase cattle, by two 
men in blue clothes, who cut his throat. He told the 
dream to his wife, who laughed at him; but as it was 
repeated two or three times, and she saw he was really 
alarmed, she advised him to join somebody who was 
going the same road. He accordingly listened till he 
heard a cart passing his door, and then went out and 
joined the man, telling him the reason for so doing 
When thev came to the spot, there actually stood the 



WARNINGS. 73 

two men in blue clothes, who, seeing lie was not alone, 
took to their heels and ran. 

Now, although the dream was here probably the 
means of saving Bone's life, there' is no reason to 
suppose this a case of what is called supernatural 
intervention. The phenomenon would be sufficiently 
accounted for by the admission of the hypothesis I 
have suggested; namely, that he was aware of the 
impending danger in his sleep, and had been able, from 
some cause unknown to us, to carry the recollection into 
his waking state. 

I know instances in which, for several mornings 
previous to the occurrence of a calamity, persons have 
awakened with a painful sense of misfortune, for which 
they could not account, and which was dispersed as 
soon as they had time to reflect that they had no 
cause for uneasiness. This is the only kind of presenti- 
ment I ever experienced myself; but it has occurred to 
me twice, in a very marked and unmistakable manner. 
As soon as the intellectual life, the life of the brain, 
and the external world broke in, the instinctive life 
receded, and the intuitive knowledge was obscured. 
Or, according to Dr. Ennemoser's theory, the polar 
relations changed, and the nerves were busied with con- 
veying sensuous impressions to the brain, their sensi- 
bility or positive state now being transferred from the 
internal to the external periphery. It is by the con- 
trary change that Dr. Ennemoser seeks to explain the 
insensibility to pain of mesmerised patients. 

A circumstance of a similar kind to the above 
occurred in a well-known family in Scotland, the 

Hutherfords of E . A lady dreamt that her aunt, 

who resided at some distance, was murdered by a black 
servant. 

Impressed with the liveliness of the vision, she 
could not resist going to the house of her relation, 
where the man she had dreamt of, whom I think she 
had never before seem opened the door to her. Upon 



74 WARNINGS. 

this, she induced a gentleman to watch in the adjoining 
room during the night; and towards morning hearing a 
foot upon the stairs, he opened the door, and discovered 
the black servant carrying up a coal-scuttle full of coals, 
for the purpose, as he said, of lighting his mistress's 
fire. As this motive did not seem very probable, the 
coals were examined and a knife found hidden amongst 
them, with which, he afterwards confessed, he intended 
to have murdered his mistress, provided she made any 
resistance to a design he had formed, of robbing her of 
a large sum of money, which he was aware she had that- 
day received. 

The following case has been quoted in several medical 
works — at least in works written by learned doctors, 
and on that account I should not mention it here, but 
for the purpose of remarking on the extraordinary facility 
with which, whilst they do not question the fact, they 
dispose of the mystery. 

Mr. D., of Cumberland, when a youth, came to 
Edinburgh, for the purpose of attending college, and 
was placed under the care of his uncle and aunt, Major 
and Mrs. Griffiths, who then resided in the castle. 
When the fine weather came, the young man was in the 
habit of making frequent excursions with others of his 
own age and pursuits; and one afternoon he mentioned 
that they had formed a fishing party, and had bespoken 
a boat for the ensuing day. No objections were made 
to this plan; but in the middle of the night, Mrs. 
Griffiths screamed out, "The boat is sinking! Oh, 
save them 1" Her husband said, he supposed she had 
been thinking of the fishing party; but she declared 
she had never thought about it at all, and soon fell 
asleep again. But ere long she awoke a second time, 
crying out that she " saw the boat sinking !" " It 
must have been the remains of the impression made 
by the other dream," she suggested to her husband, 
" fur I have no uneasiness whatever about the fishing 
party/' — but on go big to sleep once more, her husband 



WARNINGS. 75 

was again disturbed by her cries: " They are gone !" she 
said; " the boat has sunk !" She now really became 
alarmed, and without waiting for morning she threw on 
her dressing-gown and went to Mr. D., who was still 
in bed, and whom with much difficulty she persuaded 
to relinquish his proposed excursion. He consequently 
sent his servant to Leith with an excuse; and the 
party embarked without him. The day was extremely 
fine when they put to sea; but some hours afterwards 
a storm arose, in which the boat foundered; nor did any 
one of the number survive to tell the tale. 

" This dream is easily accounted for," say the learned 
gentlemen above alluded to, "from the dread all women 
have of the water, and the danger that attends boating 
on the Frith of Forth." Now I deny that all women 
have a dread of the water, and there is not the slightest 
reason for concluding that Mrs. Griffiths had. At all 
events, she affirms that she felt no uneasiness at all 
about the party, and one might take leave to think 
that her testimony upon that subject is of more value 
than that of persons who never had any acquaintance 
with her, and who were not so much as born at the 
time the circumstance occurred, which was in the yeas* 
1731. Besides, if Mrs. Griffiths' dream arose simply 
from " the dread all women have of the water," and 
that its subsequent verification was a mere coincidence, 
since women constantly risk their persons in voyages 
and boating excursions, such dreams should be ex- 
tremely frequent; the fact of there being any accident 
impending or not, having, according to this theory, no 
relation whatever to the phenomenon. And as for the 
danger that attends boating on the Frith of Forth, 
we must naturally suppose, that had it been con- 
sidered very imminent, Major Griffiths would have 
at least endeavoured to dissuade a youth that was 
placed under his protection from risking his life s® 
imprudently. It would be equally reasonable to explain 
*\way Dr. W.'s dream, by saying that all gentlemen 



76 "WARNINGS. 

who have to ride across commons are in great dread of 
encountering a bull — commons in general being infested 
by that animal. 

" Miss D., a friend of mine, was some time since 
invited to join a pic-nic excursion into the country. 
Two nights before the day fixed for the expedition, she 
dreamt that the carriage she was to go in was over- 
turned ('Own a precipice. Impressed with her dream, 
she declined the excursion, confessing her reason, and 
advising the rest of the party to relinquish their pro- 
ject. They laughed at her, and persisted in their 
scheme. When, subsequently, she went to inquire 
how they had spent the day, she found the ladies con- 
fined to their beds from injuries received; the carriage 
having been overturned down a precipice. Still this 
was only a coincidence ! 

Another specimen of the haste with which people 
are willing to dispose of what they do not understand, 
is afforded by a case that occurred, not many years 
since, in the north of Scotland, where a murder having 
been committed, a man came forward saying, that he 
had dreamt that the pack of the murdered pedlar was 
hidden in a certain spot; where on a search being made 
it was actually found. They at first concluded he was 
himself the assassin, but the real criminal was after- 
wards discovered; and it being asserted, though I have 
been told erroneously, that the two men had passed 
some time together, since the murder, in a state of in- 
toxication, it was decided that the crime and the place 
of concealment had been communicated to the pretended 
dreamer; and all who thought otherwise were laughed 
at; for why, says the rationalist, should not Provi- 
dence have so ordered the dream as to have prevented 
the murder altogether? 

bo can answer that question, and whither would 
such a discussion lead us ? Moreover, if this faculty 
©f presentiment be a natural one, though only imper- 
fectly and capriciously developed, there may have beer 



WARNINGS. 77 

no design in the matter; it is an accident, just in the 
same sense as an illness is an accident; that is, not 
without cause, but without a cause that we can pene- 
trate. If on the other hand we have recourse to the 
intervention of spiritual beings, it may be answered 
that we are entirely ignorant of the conditions under 
which any such communication is possible; and that we 
cannot therefore come to any conclusions as to why so 
much is done, and no more. 

But there is another circumstance to be observed in 
considering the case, which is, that the dreamer is said 
to have passed some days in a state of intoxication. 
Now, even supposing this had been true, it is well 
known that the excitement of the brain, caused by 
intoxication, has occasionally produced a very remark- 
able exaltation of certain faculties. It is by means 
either of intoxicating draughts or vapours, that the 
soothsayers of Lapland and Siberia place themselves in 
a condition to vaticinate : and we have every reason to 
believe that drugs, producing similar effects, were re- 
sorted to by the thaumaturgists of old, and by the 
witches of later days, of which I shall have more to say 
hereafter. But as a case in point, I may here allude 
to the phenomena exhibited in a late instance of the 
application of ether, by Professor Simpson, of Edin- 
burgh, to a lady who was at the moment under circum- 
stances not usually found very agreeable. She said 
that she was amusing herself delightfully by playing 
over a set of quadrilles which she had known in her 
youth, but had long forgotten; but she now perfectly 
remembered them, and had played them over several 
times. Here was an instance of the exaltation of a 
faculty from intoxication, similar to that of the woman 
who, in her delirium, spoke a language which she had 
only heard in her childhood, and of which, in her 
normal state^ she had no recollection. 

That the inefficiency of the communication, or pre- 
sentiment or whatever it may be, is no argument 



78 WARNINGS. 

against the fact of such dreams occurring, I can safely 
assert, from cases which have come under my own 
knowledge. A professional gentleman, whose name 
would be a warrant for the truth of whatever he 
relates, told me the following circumstance regarding 
himself. He was, not very long since, at the sea-side 
with his family, and amongst the rest, he had with him 
one of Lis sons, a boy about twelve years of age, who 
was in the habit of bathing daily, his father accom- 
panying him to the water-side. This practice had 
continued during the whole of their visit, and no idea 
of danger or accident had ever occurred to anybody. 
On the day preceding the one appointed for their de- 
parture, Mr. H., the gentleman in question, felt himself, 
after breakfast, surprised by an unusual drowsiness, 
which he having vainly struggled to overcome, at length 
fell asleep in his chair, and dreamt that he was attend- 
ing his son to the bath as usual, when he suddenly saw 
the boy drowning, and that he himself had rushed into 
the water, dressed as he was, and brought him ashore. 
Though he was quite conscious of the dream when he 
awoke, he attached no importance to it; he considered 
it merely a dream, no more; and when, some hours 
afterwards, the boy came into the room and said, " Now 
papa, it's time to go; this will be my last bath;" his 
morning's vision did not even recur to him. They 
walked down to the sea as usual, and the boy went 
aito the water, whilst the father stood composedly 
watching him from the beach, when suddenly the child 
lost his footing, a wave had caught him, and the danger 
of his being carried away was so imminent, that without 
even waiting to take off his great coat, boots or hat, 
Mr. H. rushed into the water, and was only just in 
time to save him. 

Here is a case of undoubted authenticity, which I 
take to be an instance of clear-seeing or second sight in 
sleep. The spirit, with its intuitive faculty, saw what 
was impending; the sleeper remembered his dream, but 
the intellect did not accept the warning; and whether 



WARNINGS. 79 

that warning was merely a subjective process — the clear- 
seeing of the spirit — or whether it was affected by any 
external agency, the free-will of the person concerned 
was not interfered with. 

I quote the ensuing similar case from the " Frankfort 
Journal/' 25th June. 1837: — "A singular- circumstance 
is said to be connected with the late attempt on the life 
of the Archbishop of Autun. The two nights pre- 
ceding the attack, the prelate dreamt that he saw a 
man who was making repeated efforts to take away his 
life, and he awoke in extreme terror and agitation from 
the exertions he had made to escape the danger. The 
features and appearance of the man were so clearly im- 
printed on his memory, that he recognised him the 
moment his eye fell upon him, which happened as he 
was coming out of church. The bishop hid his face, 
and called his attendants, but the man had fired before 
he could make known his apprehensions. Facts of this 
description are far from uncommon. It appears that 
the assassin had entertained designs against the lives of 
the bishops of Dijon, Burgos, and Nevers." 

The following case, which occurred a few years since, 
in the north of England, and which I have from the 
best authority, is remarkable from the inexorable 
fatality which brought about the fulfilment of the 
dream: — Mrs. K., a lady of family and fortune in 
Yorkshire, said to her son, one morning, on descend- 
ing to breakfast, " Henry, what are you going; to do 
to-day r 

" I am going to hunt," replied the young man. 

" I am very glad of it," she answered. " I should 
not like you to go shooting, for I dreamt last night that 
you did so, and were shot." The son answered gaily, 
that he would take care not to be shot, and the hunting 
party rode away; but, in the middle of the day they 
returned, not having found any sport. Mr. B., a 
visitor in the house, then proposed that they should go 
out with their guns, and try to find some wodcocks. 
" I will go with you," returned the young man, " but I 



80 WARNINGS. 

must not shoot to-day, myself, for my mother dreamt 
last night I was shot; and, although it is but a dream, 
she would be uneasy." 

They went, Mr. B. with his gun, and Mr. K. 
without; but shortly afterwards the beloved son was 
brought home dead. A charge from the gun of his 
companion had struck him in the eye, entered his brain, 
and killed him on the spot. Mr. B., the unfortunate 
cause of this accident, and also the narrator of it, died 
but a few weeks since. 

It is well known that the murder of Mr. Percival, by 
Bellingham, was seen in sleep by a gentleman at York, 
who actually went to London in consequence of his 
dream, which was several times repeated. He arrived 
too late to prevent the calamity; neither would he have 
been believed, had he arrived earlier. 

In the year 1461, a merchant was travelling towards 
Rome, by Sienna, when he dreamt that his throat was 
cut. He communicated his dream to the host of the 
inn, who did not like it, and advised him to pray and 
confess. He did so, and then rode forth, and was pre- 
sently attacked by the priest he had confessed to, who 
had thus learnt his wealth and his apprehensions. He 
killed the merchant, but was betrayed and disappointed 
of his gains, by the horse taking fright and running 
back to the inn with the money bags. 

I have related this story, though not a new one, on 
account of its singular resemblance to the following, 
which I take from a newspaper paragraph; but which 
I find also mentioned as a fact in a continental publi- 
cation: — 

" Singular Verification of a Dream. — A letter 
from Hamburgh contains the following curious story, 
relative to the verification of a dream. It appears that 
a locksmith's apprentice, one morning lately, informed 
his master (Claude Soller), that on the previous night 
fee dreamt that he had been assassinated on the road to 
Bergsdorff, a little town at about two hours' distance 



WARNINGS. 81 

from Hamburgh. The master laughed at the young 
man's credulity, and to prove that he himself had little 
faith in dreams, insisted upon sending him to Bergs- 
dorff, with 140 rix dollars (22£ 8s.), which he owed to 
his brother-in-law, who resided in the town. The 
apprentice, after in vain imploring his master to change 
his intention, was compelled to set out, at about eleven 
o'clock. On arriving at the village of Billwaerder, 
about half-way between Hamburgh and BergsdorfF, he 
recollected his dream with terror, but perceiving the 
baillie of the village at a little distance, talking to some 
of his workmen, he accosted him, and acquainted him 
with his singular dream, at the same time requesting, 
that, as he had money about his person, one of his 
workmen might be allowed to accompany him for pro- 
tection across a small wood which lay in his way. The 
baillie smiled, and in obedience to his orders, one of his 
men set out with the young apprentice. The next day 
the corpse of the latter was conveyed by some peasants 
to the baillie, along with a reaping-hook, which had 
been found by his side, and, with which the throat of 
the murdered youth had been cut. The baillie imme- 
diately recognised the instrument as one which he had 
on the previous day given to the workman who had 
served as the apprentice's guide, for the purpose of 
priming some willows. The workman was apprehended, 
and, on being confronted with the body of his victim, 
made a full confession of his crime, adding, that the 
recital of the dream had alone prompted him to commit 
the horrible act. The assassin, who is thirty-live years 
of age, is a native of Billwaerder, and, previously to the 
perpetration of the murder, had always borne an irre- 
proachable character." 

The life of the great Harvey was saved by the Gover- 
nor of Dover refusing to allow him to embark for the 
continent with his friends. The vessel was lost, with all 
on board ; and the Governor confessed to him, that he 



S2 WARNINGS. 

had detained him in consequence of an injunction he 
had received in a dream to do so. 

There is a very curious circumstance related by Mr. 
Ward, in his " Illustrations of Human Life/' regarding 
the late Sir Evan Nepean, which, I believe, is perfectly 
authentic. I have, at least, been assured, by persons 
well acquainted with him, that he himself testified to 
its truth. 

Being, at the time, secretary to the Admiralty, he 
found himself one night unable to sleep, and urged by 
an UD definable feeling that he must rise, though it was 
then only two o'clock. He accordingly did so, and 
went into the park, and from that to the Home Office, 
which he entered by a private door, of which he had 
the key. He had no object in doing this, and to pass 
the time, he took up a newspaper that was lying on the 
table, and there read a paragraph to the effect, that a 
reprieve had been despatched to York, for the men con- 
demned for coining. 

The question occurred to him, was it indeed des- 
patched? He examined the books and found it was 
not ; and it was only by the most energetic proceedings 
that the thing was carried through, and reached York 
in time to save the men. 

Is not this like the agency of a protecting spirit, 
urging Sir Evan to this discovery, in order that these 
men might be spared ; or that those concerned might 
escape the remorse they would have suffered for their 
criminal neglect 1 

It is a remarkable fact, that somnambules of the 
highest order believe themselves attended by a protect- 
ing spirit. To those who do not believe, because they 
have never witnessed the phenomena of somnambulism, 
or who look upon the disclosures of persons in that 
state as the mere raving of hallucination, this authority 
will necessarily have no weight; but even to such per- 
sons, the universal coincidence must be considered wor- 
thy of observation, though it be regarded only as a symp- 






WARNINGS. 83 

torn of disease. I believe I have remarked elsewhere, 
that many persons, who have not the least tendency to 
somnambulism, or any proximate malady, have, all 
their lives, an intuitive feeling of such a guardianship ; 
and, not to mention Socrates and the ancients, there 
are, besides, numerous recorded cases in modern times, 
in which persons, not somnambulic, have declared them- 
selves to have seen and held communication with their 
spiritual protector. 

The case of the girl called Ludwiger, who, in her 
infancy, had lost her speech, and the use of her limbs, 
and who was earnestly committed by her mother, when 
dying, to the care of her elder sisters, is known to many. 
These young women piously fulfilled their engagement, 
till the wedding-day of one of them caused them to 
forget their charge. On recollecting it, at length, they 
hastened home, and found the girl, to their amazement, 
sitting up in her bed, and she told them, that her 
mother had been there and given her food. She never 
spoke again, and soon after died. This circumstance 
occurred at Dessau, not many years since ; and is, ac- 
cording to Schubert, a perfectly established fact in that 
neighbourhood. The girl at no other period of her life 
exhibited any similar phenomena, nor had she ever dis- 
played any tendency to spectral illusions. 

The wife of a respectable citizen, named Arnold, at 
Heilbronn, held constant communications with her pro- 
tecting spirit, who warned her of impending dangers, 
approaching visitors, and so forth. He was only once 
visible to her, and it was in the form of an old man ; 
but his presence was felt by others as well as herseli, 
and they were sensible that the air was stirred, as by a 
breath. 

Jung Stilling publishes a similar account, which was 
bequeathed to him by a very worthy and pious minister 
of the church. The subject of the guardianship was 
his own wife ; and the spirit first appeared to her after 
her marriage, in the year 1799, as a child, attired in a 



84 WARNINGS 

white robe, whilst she was busy in her bed-chamber 
She stretched out her hand to take hold of the figure 
but it disappeared. It frequently visited her after* 
wards, and in answer to her inquiries, it said, " I died 
in my childhood I" It came to her at all hours, whether 
alone or m company, and not only at home, but else- 
where, and even when travelling, assisting her when in 
danger; it sometimes floated in the air, spake to her 
in its own language, which, somehow, she says, she 
understood, and could speak, too ; and it was once seen 
by another person. He bade her call him Immanuel 
She earnestly begged him to show himself to her hus- 
band, but he alleged that it would make him ill, and 
cause his death. On asking him where/ore, he answered 
" few persons are able to see such things. " 

Her two children, one six years old, and the othel 
younger, saw this figure as well as herself. 

Schubert, in his " Geschichte der Seele," relates that 
the ecclesiastical councillor Schwartz, of Heidelberg, 
when about twelve years of age, and at a time that he 
was learning the Greek language, but knew very little 
about it, dreamt that his grandmother, a very pious 
woman, to whom he had been much attached, appeared 
to him, and unfolded a parchment, inscribed with 
Greek characters, which foretold the fortunes of his 
future life. He read it off with as much facility as if 
it had been in German ; but being dissatisfied with 
some particular of the prediction, he begged they 
might be changed. His grandmother answered him in 
Greek, whereupon he awoke, remembering the dream, 
but, in spite of the efforts to arrest them, he was unable 
to recall the particulars the parchment had contained, 
The answer of his grandmother, however, he was able 
to grasp before it had fled his memory, and he wrote 
down the words ; but the meaning of them he could 
not disco\er ; without the assistance of his Grammar 
tnd Lexicon. Being interpreted, they proved to be 



WARNINGS. 85 

these — " As it is prophecied to me, so I prophecy to 
thee!" He had written the words in a volume of 
Gessner's works, being the first thing he laid his hand 
on; and he often philosophized on them in later days, 
when they chanced to meet his eye. How, he says, 
should he have been able to read and produce that in 
his sleep, which, in his waking state, he would have 
been quite incapable of? " Even long after, when I lefb 
school," he adds, " I could scarcely have put together 
such a sentence ; and it is extremely remarkable that the 
feminine form was observed in conformity with the 
sex of the speaker. The words were these — Tavra 
^prjfffjLGjdrjBelo'a \prjO j.i^iu) cot. 

Grotius relates, that when M. de Saumaise was 
councillor of the Parliament at Dijon, a person who 
knew not a word of Greek, brought him a paper, on 
which was written some words in that language, but 
not in the character. He said that a voice had uttered 
them to him in the night, and that he had written them 
down, imitating the sound as well as he could. Mons. 
de Saumaise made out that the signification of the 
words, was : Ci Begone ! do you not see that death im- 
pends ?" Without comprehending what danger was 
predicted, the person obeyed the mandate and departed, 
On that night the house that he had been lodging in 
fell to the ground. 

The difficulty in these two cases is equally great, 
apply to it whatever explanation we may; for even if 
the admonitions proceeded from some friendly guardian, 
as we might be inclined to conclude, it is not easy to 
conceive why they should have been communicated in 
a language the persons did not understand. 

After the death of Dante, it was discovered that the 
thirteenth canto of the " Paradiso" was missing ; great 
search was made for it, but in vain ; and to the regret 
of everybody concerned, it was at length concluded 
that it had either never been written, or had been de- 



86 WARNINGS. 

stroyed. The quest was therefore given up, and some 
months had elapsed when Pietro Alighieri, his son, 
dreamt that his father appeared to him, and told him 
that if he removed a certain panel near the window 
of the room, in which he had been accustomed tc 
write, the thirteenth canto* would be found. Pietro 
told his dream and was laughed at, of course ; however, 
as the canto did not turn up, it was thought as well to 
examine the spot indicated in the dream. The panel 
was removed, and there lay the missing canto behind 
it ; much mildewed, but fortunately still legible. 

If it be true that the dead do return sometimes to 
solve our perplexities, here was not an unworthy occa- 
sion for the exercise of such a power. We can imagine 
the spirit of the great poet still clinging to the memory 
of his august work, immortal as himself — the record of 
those high thoughts which can never die. 

There are numerous curious accounts extant of 
persons being awakened by the calling of a voice which 
announced some impending danger to them. Three 
boys are sleeping in the wing of a castle, and the 
eldest is awakened by what appears to him to be the 
voice of his father calling him by name. He rises and 
hastens to his parent's chamber, situated in another 
part of the building, where he finds his father asleep ; 
who, on being awakened, assures him that he had not 
called him, and the boy returns to bed. But he is 
scarcely asleep, before the circumstance recurs, and he 
again goes to his father with the same result. A third 
time ne falls asleep, and a third time he is aroused by 
the voice, too distinctly heard for him to doubt his 
senses; and now, alarmed at he knows not what, he 
rises and takes his brothers with him to his fathers 
chamber; and whilst they are discussing the singularity 
of the circumstance, a crash is heard, and that wing of 
the castle in which the boys slept falls to the ground. 
This incident excited so much attention in Germany 
that it was recorded in a ballad. 



WARNINGS. 87 

It is related by Aniyraldus, that Monsieur Calignan, 
Chancellor of Navarre, dreamed three successive times 
in one night, at Berne, that a voice called to him and 
bade him quit the place, as the plague would soon break 
out in that town ; that, in consequence, he removed his 
family, and the result justified his flight. 

A German physician relates, that a patient of his 
told him, that he dreamt repeatedly, one night, that a 
voice bade him go to his hop-garden, as there were 
thieves there. He resisted the injunction some time, 
till at length he was told that if he delayed any longer, 
he would lose all his produce. Thus urged, he went 
at last, and arrived just in time to see the thieves, 
loaded with sacks, making away from the opposite side 
of the hop-ground. 

A Madame Yon Militz found herself under the 
necessity of parting with a property which had long 
been in her family. When the bargain was concluded, 
and she was preparing to remove, she solicited per- 
mission of the new proprietor to carry away with her 
some little relic as a memento of former days — a re- 
quest which he uncivilly denied. On one of the nights 
that preceded her departure from the home of her 
ancestors, she dreamt that a voice spoke to her, and 
bade her go to the cellar and open a certain part of the 
wall, where she would find something that nobody 
would dispute with her. Impressed with her dream, 
she sent for a bricklayer, who, after long seeking, dis- 
covered a place which appeared less solid than the rest, 
A hole was made, and in a niche, was found a goblet, 
which contained something that looked like a pot 
pourri. On shaking out the contents, there lay at the 
bottom a small ring, on which was engraven the name 
Anna Von Militz. 

A friend of mine, Mr. Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, 
has some coins that were found exactly in the same 
manner. The child of a Mr. Christison, in whose 
house his father was lodging, in the yew \78\ dreamt 



88 WARNINGS. 

that there was a treasure hid in the cellar. Her father 
had no faith in the dream; but Mr. S. had the curio- 
sity to have the place dug up, and a copper pot was 
found full of coins. 

A very singular circumstance was related to me 
lately, by Mr. J. J., as having occurred not long since 
to himself. A tonic had been prescribed to him by his 
physician, for some slight derangement of the system, 
and as there was no good chemist in the village he 
inhabited, he was in the habit of walking to a town 
about five miles off, to get the bottle filled as occasion 
required. One night, that he had been to M. for this 
purpose, and had obtained his last supply, for he was 
now recovered, and about to discontinue the medicine, 
a voice seemed to warn him that some great danger t?&& 
impending, his life was in jeopardy; then he heard, but 
not with his outward ear, a beautiful prayer. " It was 
not myself that prayed/' he said, " the prayer was far 
beyond anything I am capable of composing — it spoke 
of me in the third person, always as he; and suppli- 
cated that, for the sake of my widowed mother, this 
calamity might be averted. My father had been dead 
some months. I was sensible of all this, yet I cannot 
say whether I was asleep or awake. When I rose in 
the morniug, the whole was present to my mind, 
although I had slept soundly in the interval ; I felt, 
however, as if there was some mitigation of the cala- 
mity, though what the danger was with which I was 
threatened, I had no notion. When I was dressed, I 
prepared to take my medicine, but on lifting the bottle, . 
I fancied that the colour was not the same as usual. I 
looked again, and hesitated, and finally, instead of 
taking two table spoonfuls, which was my accustomed 
dose, I took but one. Fortunate it was that I did so; 
the apothecary had made a mistake; the drug was 
poison; I was seized with a violent vomiting, and 
other alarming symptoms, from which I with difficulty 
recovered. Had I taken the two spoonfuls, I should, 
probably, not have survived to tell the tale." 



89 

WARNINGS. 

The manner in which I happened to obtain these 
particulars is not uninteresting. I was spending the 
evening with Mr. Wordsworth, at Bidal, when he 
mentioned to me that a stranger, who had called on 
him that morning, had quoted two lines from his poem 
of " Laodamia," which, he said to him, had a peculiar 
interest. They were these : — 

" The invisible world with thee hath sympathised; 
Be thy affections raised and solemnised." 

"I do not know what he alludes to," said Mr. 
Wordsworth; "but he gave me to understand that 
these lines had a deep meaning for him, and that he 
had himself been the subject of such a sympathy.' 1 

Upon this I sought the stranger, whose address the 
poet gave me, and thus learnt the above particulars 
from himself. His very natural persuasion was, that 
the interceding spirit was his father. He described 
the prayer as one of earnest anguish. 

One of the most remarkable instances of warning 
that has come to my knowledge, is that of Mr. M., of 
Kingsborough. This gentleman, being on a voyage to 
America, dreamt one night, that a little old man came 
into his cabin and said, " Get up ! Your life is in 
danger!" Upon which, Mr. M. awoke; but consider- 
ing it to be only a dream, he soon composed himself to 
sleep again. The dream, however, if such it were, re- 
curred, and the old man urged him still more strongly 
to get u p directly; but he still persuaded himself it was 
only a dream; and after listening a few minutes, and 
hearing nothing to alarm him, he turned round, and 
addressed himself once more to sleep. But now the old 
man appeared again, and angrily bade him rise in- 
stantly, and take his gun and ammunition with him, 
for he had not a moment to lose. The injunction was 
now so distinct that Mr. M. felt he could no longer 
resist it; so he hastily dressed himself, took his gun, 
and ascended to the deck, where he had scarcely 
arrived, when the ship struck on a rock, which he and 



90 



WARNINGS. 



several others contrived to reach. The place, how- 
ever, was uninhabited, and but for his gun, they would 
never have been able to provide themselves with food 
till a vessel arrived to their relief. 

Now these can scarcely be looked upon as instances 
of clear seeing, or of second sight in sleep, which, in 
Denmark, is called first-seeing, I believe; for in neither 
case did the sleeper perceive the danger, much less 
the nature of it. If, therefore, we refuse to attribute 
them to some external protecting influence, they 
resolve themselves into cases of vague presentiment ; 
but it must then be admitted that the mode of the 
manifestation is very extraordinary; so extraordinary 
indeed, that we fall into fully as great a difficulty as that 
offered by the supposition of a guardian spirit. 

An American clergyman told me that an old woman, 
with whom he was acquainted, who had two sons, 
heard a voice say to her in the night, " John's dead !" 
This was her eldest son. Shortly afterwards, the news 
of his death arriving, she said to the person who com- 
municated the intelligence to her, " If John's dead, 
then I know that David is dead too, for the same voice 
has since told me so ;" and the event proved that the 
information, whencesoever it came, was correct. 

Not many years since, Captain S. was passing a night 
at the Manse of Strachur, in Argyleshire, then occupied 
by a relation of his own; shortly after he had lain 
down in bed, the curtains were opened, and somebody 
looked in upon him. Supposing it to be some inmate 
of the house, who was not aware that the bed was occu- 
pied, he took no notice of the circumstance, till it being 
two or three times repeated, he at length said, " What 
do you want 1 Why do you disturb me in this man- 
ner?" 

" I come," replied a voice, " to tell you, that this day 
twelvemonth you will be with your father !" 

After this, Captain S. was no more disturbed. In 
the morning, he related the circumstance to his host ; 



EARNINGS. 91 

but, being an entire disbeliever in all such phenomena, 
without attaching any importance to the warning. 

In the natural course of events, and quite irrespec- 
tive of this visitation, on that day twelvemonth he was 
again at the Manse of Strachur, on his way to the north, 
lor which purpose it was necessary that he should cross 
the ferry to Craigie. The day was, however, so exceed- 
ingly stormy, that his friend begged him not to go; 
but he pleaded his business, adding that he was deter- 
mined not to be withheld from his intention by the 
ghost, and although the minister delayed his departure, 
by engaging him in a game ot backgammon, he at 
length started up, declaring he could stay no longer. 
They therefore proceeded to the water, but they found 
the boat moored to the side ol the lake, and the boat- 
man assured them that it would be impossible to cross. 
Captain S., however, insisted, and as the old man was 
iirm in his refusal, he became somewhat irritated, and 
laid his cane lightly across his shoulders. 

" It ill becomes you, sir," said the ferryman, " to 
strike an old man like me ; but since you will have 
your way, you must; I cannot go with you, but my 
son will ; but you will never reach the other side ; he 
will be drowned, and you too." 

The boat was then set afloat, and Captain S., togethei 
with his horse and servant, and the ferryman's son. 
embarked in it. 

The distance was not great, but the storm was tre- 
mendous; and, after having with great difficulty got 
half way across the lake, it was found impossible to 
proceed. The danger of tacking was ot course con- 
siderable ; but since they could not advance, there was 1 
no alternative but to turn back, and it was resolved to 
attempt it. The manoeuvre, however, failed; the boat 
capsizea, and they were all precipitated into the water. 

"You keep hold of the horse, I can swim," said 
Captain S. to his servant, when he saw what was aoout 
to happen. 



9? WARNINGS. 

Being an excellent swimmer, and the distance from 
the shore inconsiderable, he hoped to save himself, but 
he had on a heavy top coat, with boots and spnrs. The 
coat he contrived to take off in the water, and then 
struck out with confidence; but alas, the coat had got 
entangled with one of the spurs, and as he swam, it 
clung to him, getting heavier and heavier, as it became 
saturated with water, even dragging him beneath the 
stream. He, however, reached the shore, where his 
anxious friend still stood watching the event, and as 
the latter bent over him, he was just able to make a 
gesture with his hand, which seemed to say, " You see 
it was to be !" and then expired. 

The boatman was also drowned; but by the aid of 
the horse, the servant escaped. 

As I do not wish to startle my readers, nor draw too 
suddenly on their faith, I have commenced with this class 
of phenomena, which it must be admitted are sufficiently 
strange, and if true, must also be admitted to be well 
worthy of attention. No doubt, these cases, and still 
more those to which I shall next proceed, give a pain- 
ful shock to the received notions of polished and edu- 
cated society in general; especially in this counlry, 
where the analytical or scientifical psychology of the 
eighteenth century has almost entirely superseded the 
study of synthetic or philosophical psychology. It has 
become a custom to look at all the phenomena regard- 
ing man in a purely physiological point of view; for 
although it is admitted that he has a mind, and 
ftltnough there is such a science as metaphysics, the 
existence of what we call mind is never considered but 
as connected with the body. We know that body can 
exist without mind; for, not to speak of certai n living con- 
dition?, the body subsists without mind when the spirit 
hasned; albeit, without the living principle it can sub- 
sist out lor a short period, except under particular 
oimim stances; but we seem to have forgotten that 
miua, tnougli very dependent upon body as long as the 



WARNINGS. 93 

connexion between them continues, can yet subsist 
without it. There have indeed been philosophers, 
purely materialistic, who have denied this, but they 
are not many; and not only the whole Christian world, 
but all who believe in a future state, must perforce 
admit it ; for even those who hold that most unsatis- 
factory doctrine, that there will be neither memory 
nor consciousness till a second incorporation takes 
place, will not deny that the mind, however in a state 
of abeyance, and unable to manifest itself must still 
subsist, as an inherent property of man's immortal 
part. Even if, as some philosophers believe, the spirit 
when freed from the body by death, returns to the 
Deity, and is re-absorbed in the being of God, not to 
become again a separate entity until re-incorporated, 
still what we call mind cannot be disunited from it. 
And when once we have begun to conceive of mind, 
and consequently of perception, as separated from, and 
independent of bodily organs, it will not be very diffi- 
cult to apprehend that those bodily organs must cir- 
cumscribe and limit the view of the spiritual in-dweller, 
which must otherwise be necessarily perceptive of spirit 
like itself, though perhaps unperceptive of material 
objects and obstructions. 

"-It is perfectly evident tome," said Socrates, in his 
last moments, " that, to see clearly, we must detach 
ourselves from the body, and perceive by the soul alone. 
Not whilst we live, but when we die, will that wisdom 
which we desire and love, be first revealed to us; it 
must be then or never, that we shall attain to true 
miderstanding and knowledge; since by. means of the 
body we never can. But if, during life, we would make 
the nearest approaches possible to its possession, it must 
be by divorcing ourselves as mucli as in us lies from the 
flesh and its nature." In their spiritual views and 
apprehension of the nature of man, how these old 
heatnens shame us! 

The Scriptures teach us that God chose to reveal 



94 WARNING*, 

himself to his people chiefly in dreams, and we are 
entitled to conclude that the reason of this was, that 
the spirit was then more free to the reception of spiritual 
influences and impressions; and the class of dreams to 
which I next proceed, seem to be best explained by this 
hypothesis. It is also to be remarked, that the awe or 
fear which pervades a mortal at the mere conception of 
being brought into relation with a spirit, has no place 
in sleep, whether natural or magnetic. There is no fear 
then, no surprise; we seem to meet on an equality — is 
it not that we meet spirit to spirit? Is it not that our 
spirit being then released from the trammels — the dark 
chamber of the flesh, it does enjoy a temporary equality] 
Is not that true, that some German psychologist has 
said, " The magnetic man is a spirit ?" 

There are numerous instances to be met with, of 
persons receiving information in their sleep, which either 
is, or seems to be, communicated by their departed 
friends. The approach of danger, the period of the 
sleepers death, or of that of some person beloved, has 
been frequently made known in this form of dream. 

Dr. Binns quotes, from Cardanus, the case of 
Johannes Maria Maurosenus, a Venetian senator, who, 
whilst governor of Dalmatia, saw in a dream one of his 
brothers, to whom he was much attached; the brother 
embraced him and bade him farewell, because he was 
going into the other world; Maurosenus having followed 
him a long way weeping, awoke in tears, and expressed 
much anxiety respecting this brother. Shortly after- 
wards he received tidings from Venice, that this 
Domatus, of whom he had dreamt, had died on the 
night and at the hour of the dream, of a pestilential 
fever, which had carried him off in three days. 

On the night of the 21st of June, in the year 1813, 
a lady residing in the north of England, dreamt that 
her brother, who was then with his regiment in Spain, 
appeared to her, saying, " Mary, I die this day at 
Vittoria." 



WARMNGS. 95 

Vittoria was a town which, previous to the iamous 
battle, was not generally known even by name in this 
country, and this dreamer amongst others had never 
heard of it; but on rising she eagerly resorted to a 
Gazetteer for the purpose of ascertaining if such a place 
existed. On finding that it was so, she immediately 
ordered her horses, and drove to the house of a sister^ 
who resided some eight or nine miles off, and her first 
words on entering the room were; "Have you heard 
anything of John?" "No," replied the second sister, 
" but I know he is dead ! He appeared to me last 
night in a dream, and told me that he was killed at 
Vittoria. I have been looking into the Gazetteer and 
the Atlas, and I find there is such a place, and I am 
sure that he is dead !" And so it proved; the young 
man died that day at Vittoria, and I believe on the 
field of battle. If so it is worthy of observation, that 
the communication was not made till the sisters slept. 

A similar case to this is that of Miss D., of G., who 
one night dreamt that she was walking about the 
washing greens, when a figure approached which she 
recognised as that of a beloved brother, who was at 
that time with the British army in America. It 
gradually faded away into a kind of anatomy, holding 
up his hands, through which the light could be per- 
ceived, and asking for clothes to dress a body for the 
grave. The dream recurred more than once in the 
same night, and apprehending some misfortune, Miss D. 
noted down the date of the occurrence. In due course 
of post, the news arrived that this brother had been 
killed at the battle of Bunker s Hill. Miss D., who 
died only within the last few years, though unwilling to 
speak of the circumstance, never refused to testify to it 
as a fact. 

Here, supposing this to be a real apparition, we see 
an instance of that desire for decent obsequies so con- 
stantly attributed by the ancients to the souls of the 
dead- 



96 WARNINGS. 

When the German poet, Collin, died at Vienna, a 
person named Hartmann, who was his friend, found 
himself very much distressed by the loss of a hundred 
and twenty florins, which he had paid for the poet, 
under a promise of reimbursement. As this sum 
formed a large portion of his whole possessions, the 
circumstance was occasioning him considerable anxiety, 
when he dreamt one night that his deceased friend 
appeared to him, and bade him immediately set two 
florins on No. 11, on the first calling of the little lottery 
or.loto then about to be drawn. He was bade to con- 
fine his venture to two florins, neither less nor more; 
and to communicate this information to nobody. Hart- 
mann availed himself of the hint, and obtained a prize 
of a hundred and thirty florins. 

Since we look upon lotteries in this country as an 
immoral species of gambling, it may be raised as an 
objection to this dream, that such intelligence was an 
unworthy mission for a spirit, supposing the com- 
munication to have been actually made by Collin. But 
in the first place, we have only to do with facts, and 
not with their propriety or impropriety, according to 
our notions; and by and by T shall endeavour to show 
that such discrepancies possibly arise from the very 
erroneous notions commonly entertained of the state 
of those who have disappeared from the terrestrial 
life. 

Simonides, the poet, arriving at the sea-shore with 
the intention of embarking on board a vessel on the 
ensuing day, found an unburied body, which he imme- 
diately desired should be decently interred. On the 
same night, this deceased person appeared to him, and 
bade him by no means go to sea, as he had proposed. 
Simonides obeyed the injunction, and beheld the vessel 
founder as he stood on the shore. He raised a monu- 
ment on the spot to the memory of his preserver, which 
is said still to exist, on which are engraven some lines 
to the effect; that it was dedicated by Simonides, the 



WARNINGS. 97 

poet of Cheos, in gratitude to the dead, who had pre- 
served him from death. 

A much esteemed secretary died a few years since, 
in the house of Mr. It. von N. About eight weeks 
afterwards, Mr. H. himself being ill, his daughter 
dreamt that the house-bell rang; and that on looking 
out. she perceived the secretary at the door. Having 
admitted him and inquired what he was come for, 
he answered, "to fetch somebody." Upon which, 
alarmed for her father, she exclaimed, "I hope not my 
father." He shook his head solemnly, in a manner that 
implied it was not the old man he had come for, and 
turned away towards a guest chamber, at that time 
vacant, and there disappeared at the door. The father 
recovered, and the lady left home for a few days, on a 
visit; on her return, she found her brother had arrived 
in the interval to pay a visit to his parents, and was 
lying sick in that room, where he died. 

I will here mention a curious circumstance, re- 
garding Mr. H., the gentleman alluded to in a 
former page, who, being at the sea-side, saw in a 
dream the danger that awaited his son when he went 
to bathe. This gentleman has frequently, on waking, 
felt a consciousness that he had been conversing with 
certain persons of his acquaintance — and indeed with 
some of whom he knew little — and has afterwards, not 
without a feeling of awe, learnt that these persons had 
died duriijg the hours of his sleep. 

Do not such circumstances entitle us to entertain 
the idea that I have above suggested, namely, that in 
sleep the spirit is free to see and to know, and to com- 
municate with spirit, although the memory of this 
knowledge is rarely carried into the waking state. 

The story of the two Arcadians, who travelled toge- 
ther to Megara, though reprinted in other works, I 
- cannot omit here. One of these established himself, 
on the night of their arrival, at the house of a friend, 
whilst the other sought shelter in a public lodgings 



98 WARNINGS. 

house for strangers. During the night, the latter 
appeared to the former in a dream, and besought him 
to come to his assistance, as his villanous host was 
about to take his life, and only the most speedy aid 
could save him. The dreamer started from his sleep, 
and his first movement was to obey the summons, but 
reflecting that it was only a dream, he presently lay 
down and composed himself again to rest. But now 
his friend appeared before him a second time, dis- 
figured by blood and wounds, conjuring him, since he 
had not listened to his first entreaties, that he would 
at least avenge his death. His host, he said, had 
murdered him, and was at that moment depositing 
his body in a dung-cart, for the purpose of conveying 
it out of the town. The dreamer was thoroughly 
alarmed, arose, and hastened to the gates of the city, 
where he found, waiting to pass out, exactly such a 
vehicle as his friend had described. A search being- 
instituted, the body was found underneath the manure ; 
and the host was consequently seized, and delivered 
over to the chastisement of the law. 

" Who shall venture to assert," says Dr. Ennemoser, 
" that this communing with the dead in sleep is merely 
a subjective phenomenon, and that the presence of these 
apparitions is a pure illusion?" 

A circumstance fully as remarkable as any recorded, 
occurred at Odessa, in the year 1842. An old blind 
man, named Michel, had, for many years, been accus- 
tomed to get his living by seating himself every morn- 
ing, on a beam, in one of the timber yards, with a 
wooden bowl at his feet, into which the passengers 
cast their alms. This long - continued practice had 
made him well known to the inhabitants, and as he 
was believed to have been formerly a soldier, his blind- 
ness was attributed to the numerous wounds he had 
received in battle. For his own part he spoke little, 
and never contradicted this opinion. 

One night Michel, by some accident, fell in with a 



WARNINGS. 99 

little girl of ten years old, named Powleska, who was 
friendless, and on the verge of perishing with cold ancf 
hunger. The old man took her home, and adopted her^ 
and, from that time, instead of sitting in the timber 
yards, he went about the streets in her company,, 
isking alms at the doors of the houses. The child, 
called him father, and they were extremely happy toge- 
ther. But when they had pursued this mode of life 
for about five years a misfortune befel them. A theft 
having been committed in a house which they had 
visited in the morning, Powleska was suspected and 
arrested, and the blind man was left once more alone. 
But, instead of resuming his former habits, he now 
disappeared altogether, and this circumstance causing 
the suspicion to extend to him, the girl was brought 
before the magistrate to be interrogated with regard to 
his probable place of concealment. 

"Do you know where Michel is?" inquired the 
magistrate. 

" He is dead," replied she, shedding a torrent of tears. 

As the girl had been shut up for three days, without 
any means of obtaining information from without, this 
answer, together with her unfeigned distress, naturally 
excited considerable surprise. 

"Who told you he was dead 1 ?" they inquired. 

"Nobody!" 

" Then how can you know it ?" 

"I saw him killed!" 

" But you have not been out of the prison T 

" But I saw it, nevertheless !" 

"But how was that possible"? Explain what yon 
mean !" 

"I cannot. All I can say is, that I saw him 
killed." 

" When was he killed, and how V 9 

" It was the night I was arrested." 

"That cannot be; he was alive when you were' 
seized." 



100 WARNINGS. 

"Yes, he was; lie was killed an hour after that, 
They stabbed him with a knife." 

" Where were you then I" 

" I cant tell; but I saw it." 

The confidence with which the girl asserted what 
seemed to her hearers impossible and absurd, disposed 
them to imagine that she was either really insane, or 
pretending to be so ; so leaving Michel aside, they pro- 
ceeded to interrogate her about the robbery, asking her 
if she was guilty. 

" Oh, no !" she answered. 

"Then how came the property to be found about 
you?" 

" I don'i; know : I saw nothing but the murder." 

" But there are no grounds for supposing Michel is 
dead; his body has not been found." 

" It is in the aqueduct." 

" And do you know who slew him I" 

"Yes; it is a woman. Michel was walking very 
slowly, after I was taken from him. A woman came 
behind him with a large kitchen-knife ; but he heard 
her, and turned round ; and then the woman flung a 
piece of grey stuff over his head, and struck him re- 
peatedly with the knife ; the grey stuff was much stained 
with the blood. Michel fell at the eighth blow, and 
the woman dragged the body to the aqueduct and let 
it fall in without ever lifting the stuff which stuck to 
his face." 

A s it was easy to verify these latter assertions, they 
despatched people to the spot ; and there the body was 
found with the piece of stuff over his head, exactly as 
she had described. But when they asked her how she 
knew all this, she could only answer, " I don't know." 

u But you know who killed him T 

u Not exactly : it is the same woman that put out 
his eyes; but, perhaps, he will tell me her name to- 
night ; and if he does, I will tell it to you." 
" Who do you mean by he f y 



WARNINGS. 101 

" Why, Michel, to be sure i" 

During the whole of the following night, without 
allowing her to suspect their intention, they watched 
her ; and it was observed that she never lay down, but 
sat upon the bed in a sort of lethargic slumber. Her 
body was quite motionless, except at intervals, when 
this repose was interrupted by violent nervous shocks, 
which pervaded her whole frame. On the ensuing day, 
the moment she was brought before the judge, she de- 
clared that she was now able to tell them the name of 
the assassin. 

" But stay," said the magistrate ; H did Michel never 
tell you, when he was alive, how he lost his sight 1" 

" No ; but the morning before I was arrested, he 
promised me to do so ; and that was the cause of his 
death." 

" How could that be T 

a Last night Michel came to me, and he pointed to 
the man hidden behind the scaffolding on which he and 
I had been sitting. He showed me the man listening 
to us, when he said, ( I'll tell you all about that to- 
night ;' and then the man " 

" Do you know the name of this man ¥' 

" It is Luck ; he went afterwards to a broad street 
that leads down to the harbour, and he entered the 
third house on the right " 



" What is the name of the street ?" 

"I don't know: but the house is one story lower 
than the adjoining ones. Luck told Catherine what 
he had heard, and she proposed to him to assassinate 
Michel; but he refused, saying, 'it is bad enough to 
have burnt out his eyes fifteen years before, whilst he 
was asleep at your door, and to have kidnapped him 
into the country.' Then I went in to ask charHy, and 
Catherine put a piece of plate into my pocket, that I 
might be arrested : then she hid herself behind the 
aqueduct to wait for Michel, and she killed him." 



102 WARNINGS. 

" But, since you say all this, why did you keep the 
plate 1 — why didn't you give him information ?" 

"But I didn't see it then. Michel showed it me 
last night." 

" But what should induce Catherine to do this f 

w Michel was her husband, and she had forsaken him 
to come to Odessa and marry again. One night, fifteen 
years ago, she saw Michel, who had come to seek her. 
She slipped hastily into her house, and Michel, who 
thought she had not seen him, lay down at her door to 
watch ; but he fell asleep, and then Luck burnt out his 
eyes, and carried him to a distance." 

" And is it Michel who has told you this V 9 

" Yes : he came, very pale and covered with blood; 
and he took me by the hand and showed me all this 
with his fingers." 

Upon this, Luck and Catherine were arrested; and 
it was ascertained that she had actually been married 
to Michel in the year 1819, at Kherson. They at first 
denied the accusation, but Powleska insisted, and they 
subsequently confessed the crime. When they com- 
municated the circumstances of the confession to Pow- 
leska, she said, " I was told it last night." 

Tbis affair naturally excited great interest, and people 
all round the neighbourhood hastened into the city to 
Wra the sentence. 



103 



CHAPTER VL 

DOUBLE DREAMING AND TRANCE, 

Amongst the phenomena of the dream-life which we 
have to consider, that of double dreaming forms a very 
carious department. A somewhat natural introduction 
to this subject may be found in the cases above recorded 
of P ofessor Herder and Mr. S. of Edinburgh, who 
appear in their sleep to have received so lively an 
i ipression of those earnest wishes of their dying friends 
to see them, that they found themselves irresistibly im- 
pelled to obey the spiritual summons. These two cases 
occurred to men engaged in active daily life, and in 
normal physical conditions, on which account I par- 
ticularly refer to them here, although many similar 
ones might be adduced. 

With respect to this subject of double dreaming, Dr. 
Ennemoser thinks that it is not so difficult to explain 
as might appear on a first view, since he considers that 
there exists an indisputable sympathy betwixt certain 
organism^, especially where connected by relationship, 
or by affection, which may be sufficient to account tot 
the supervention of simultaneous thoughts, dreams, ot 
presentiments ; and I have met with some cases where 
the magnet iser and his patient have been the subjects 
of this phenomenon. "With respect to the power 
asserted to have been frequently exercised in causing 
or suggesting dreams by an operator at a distance from 
the sleeper, Dr. E. considers the two parties to stand 
in a positive and negative relation to each other; the 
antagonistic power of the sleeper being = 0, he becomes 



104 DOUBLE DREAMING 

a perfectly passive recipient of the influence exerted 
by his positive half, if I may use the expression; for, 
where such a polarity is established, the two beings 
seem to be almost blended into ore; whilst Dr. Passa- 
vant observes, that we cannot ptouounce what may be 
the limits of the nervous force, which certainly is not 
bounded by the termination of its material conductors. 

I have yet myself met with no instance of dream 
compelling by a person at a distance; but Dr. Enne- 
moser says, that Agrippa von Nettesheim asserts that 
this can assuredly be done, and also that the Abbot 
Trithemius, and others, possessed the power. In 
modern times, Wesermann, in Dusseldorf, pretended 
to the same faculty, and affirms that he had frequently 
exercised it. 

All such phenomena Dr. Passavant attributes to the 
interaction of imponderables — or of one universal im- 
ponderable under different manifestations — which acts 
not only within the organism, but beyond it, indepen- 
dently of all material obstacles; just as a sympathy 
appears betwixt one organ and another, unobstructed 
by the intervening ones; and he instances the sympathy 
which exists between the mother and the foetus, as an 
example of this sort of double life, and standing as 
midway betwixt the sympathy between two organs in 
the same body and that between two separate bodies; 
each having its own life, and its life also in and for 
another, as parts of one whole. The sympathy betwixt 
a bird and <"he eggs it sits upon is of the same kind; 
many instances having been observed, wherein eggs 
taken from one bird and placed under another, have 
produced a brood feathered like the foster, instead of the 
real parent. 

Thus, this vital force may extend dynamically the 
circle of its influence, till, under favourable circunv 
itances, it may act on other organisms, making their 
organs its own. 

I need scarcely remind my readers of the extra- 
ordinary sympathies manifested by the Siamese twins — 



AND TRANCE. 105 

Cliang and Kng. I never saw them myself; and, for 
the benefit of others in the same situation, I quote the 
following particulars from Dr. Passavant : — ,;i They were 
united by a membrane which extended from the breast- 
bone to the navel; but, in other respects, were not 
different from their countrymen in general. They were 
exceedingly alike, only that Eng was rather the most 
robust of the two. Their pulsations were not always 
coincident. They were active and agile, and fond of 
bodily exercises; their intellects were well developed, 
and their tones of voice and accent were precisely the 
same. As they never conversed together, they had 
nearly forgotten their native tongue. If one was ad- 
dressed, they both answered. They played some games 
of skill, but never with each other; as that, they said, 
would have been like the right hand playing with the 
left. They read the same book at the same time, and 
sang together in unison. In America they had a fever, 
which ran precisely a similar course with each. Their 
hunger, thirst, sleeping, and waking, were always coin- 
cident; and their tastes and inclinations were identical. 
Their movements were so simultaneous that it was im- 
possible to distinguish with which the impulse had 
originated; they appeared to have but one will. The 
idea of being separated by an operation was abhorrent 
to them; and they consider themselves much happier in 
their duality than are the individuals who look upon 
them with pity." 

This admirable sympathy, although necessarily in an 
inferior degree, is generally manifested, more or less? 
betwixt all persons twin born. Dr. Passavant, and 
other authorities, mention several instances of this kind, 
in which, although at some distance from each other, 
the same malady appeared simultaneously in both, and - 
ran precisely a similar course. A very affecting instance 
of this sort of sympathy was exhibited, not very long 
ago, by a young lady, twin-born, who was suddenly 
seized with an unaccountable horror, followed by a 
strange convulsion, which the doctor, who was hastily 



106 DOUBLE DREAMING 

called in, said, exactly resembled the struggles and 
sufferings of a person drowning. In process of time, 
the news arrived that her twin brother, then abroad, 
had been drowned precisely at that period. 

It is, probably, a link of the same kind, that is esta- 
blished betwixt the magnetiser and his patient, of 
which, besides those recorded in various works on the 
subject, some curious instances have come to my know- 
ledge, such as uncontrollable impulses to go to sleep, or 
to perform certain actions, in subservience to the will 
of the distant operator. Mr. W. W., a gentleman well 
known in the north of England, related to me, that he 
had been cured, by magnetism, of a very distressing 
malady. During part of the process of cure, after the 
rapport had been well established, the operations were 
carried on whilst he was at Malvern, and his mag- 
netiser at Cheltenham, under which circumstances the 
existence of this extraordinary dependence was fre- 
quently exhibited in a manner that left no possibility 
of doubt. On one occasion, I remember, that Mr. W. 
W. being in the magnetic sleep, he suddenly started 
from his seat, clasping his hands as if startled, and, pre- 
sently afterwards, burst into a violent fit of laughter. 
As, on waking, he could give no account of these im- 
pulses, his family wrote to the magnetiser to inquire 
if he had sought to excite any particular manifestations 
in his patient, as the sleep had been somewhat dis- 
turbed. The answer was, that no such intention had 
been entertained, but that the disturbance might pos- 
sibly have arisen from one to which he had himself 
been subjected. " Whilst my mind was concentrated 
on you," said he, u I was suddenly so much startled by 
a violent knock at the door, that I actually jumped off 
my seat, clasping my hands with affright. I had a 
hearty laugh at my own folly, but am sorry if you were 
made uncomfortable by it." 

I have met with some accounts of a sympathy of this 
kind existing betwixt young children and their parents, 



A^D TRANCE. 107 

so that the former have exhibited great distress 
and terror at the moment that death or danger have 
supervened to the latter; but it would require a great 
number of instances to establish this particular fact, 
and separate it from cases of accidental coincidence. 
Dr. Passavant, however, admits the phenomena. 

I shall return to these mysterious influences by and 
by; feut ; to revert in the meanwhile to the subject of 
double dreams, I will relate one that occurred to two 
ladies, a mother and daughter, the latter of whom 
related it to me. They were sleeping in the same bed 
at Cheltenham, when the mother, Mrs. C, dreamt that 
her brother-in-law, then in Ireland, had sent for her; 
that she entered his room, and saw him in bed, appa- 
rently dying. He requested her to kiss him, but owing 
to his livid appearance, she shrank from doing so, and 
awoke with the horror of the scene upon her. The 
daughter awoke at the same moment, saying, " Oh, I 
have had such a frightful dream !" " Oh. so have I !" 
returned the mother; " I have been dreaming of my 
brother-in-law !" " My dream was about him too," re- 
plied Miss C. "I thought I was sitting in the draw- 
ing-room, and that he came in wearing a shroud, 
trimmed with black ribbons, and approaching me he 
said. * My dear niece, your mother has refused to kiss 
me. but I am sure you will not be so unkind V " 

As these ladies were not in habits of regular cor- 
respondence with their relative, they knew that the 
earliest intelligence likely to reach them, if he were 
actually dead, would be by means of the Irish papers; 
and they waited anxiously for the following "Wednesday.^ 
which was the day these journals were received in Chel- 
tenham. When that morning arrived, Miss C. hastened 
at an early hour to the reading-room, and there she 
learnt what the dreams had led them to expect: their 
friend was dead; and they afterwards ascertained that 
his decease had taken place on that night. They more- 
over obseiwed, that neither one nor the other of thero 



108 DOUBLE DEEAMING 

had been speaking or thinking of this gentleman for 
some time previous to the occurrence of the dreams; nor 
had they any reason whatever for uneasiness with regard 
to him. It is a remarkable peculiarity in this case, that 
the dream of the daughter appears to be a continuation 
of that of the mother. In the one he is seen alive, in 
the other the shroud and black ribbons seem to indicate 
that he is dead, and he complains of the refusal to give 
him a farewell kiss. 

One is almost inevitably led here to the conclusion 
that the thoughts and wishes of the dying man were 
influencing the sleepers, or, that the released spirit was 
hovering near them. 

Pomponius Mela relates, that a certain people in the 
interior of Africa lay themselves down to sleep on the 
graves of their forefathers, and believe the dreams that 
ensue to be the unerring counsel of the dead. 

The following dream from St. Austin, is quoted by 
Dr. Binns: — " Prssstantius desired from a certain phi- 
losopher, the solution of a doubt, which the latter 
refused to give him; but in the following night the 
philosopher appeared at his bed-side, and told him what 
he desired to know. On being asked the next day why 
he had chosen that hour for his visit, he answered, ' I 
came not to you truly, but in my dream I appeared to 
you to do so.' In this case, however, only one of the 
parties seems to have been asleep, for Prsestantius says 
that he was awake; and it is, perhaps, rather an 
example of another kind of phenomena, similar to the 
instance recorded of himself by the late Joseph Wilkins, 
a dissenting minister, who says, that being one night 
rp, he dreamt that he was travelling to London, 
, that as it would not be much out of his way, he 
would go by Gloucestershire and call upon his friends. 
Accordingly he arrived at his father's house, but find- 
ing the front door closed, he went round to the back 
and there entered. The family, however, being already 
in bed, he ascended the stairs, aud entered his father's 



AND TRANCE. 109 

bed-chamber. Hhn he found asleep, but to his mother 
who was awake, he said, as he walked round to her side 
of the bed, i Mother, I am going a long journey, and 
am come to bid you good bye;' to which she answered, 
1 Oh, dear son, thee art dead !' Though struck witl 
the distinctness of the dream, Mr. "Wilkins attached no 
importance to it, till to his surprise, a letter arrived 
from his father, addressed to himself, if alive, or if not, 
to his surviving friends, begging earnestly for imme- 
diate intelligence, since they were under great appre- 
hensions that their son was either dead or in danger of 
death; for that on such a night (naming that on which 
the above dream had occurred), he, the father, being 
asleep, and Mrs. W. awake, she had distinctly heard 
somebody try to open the fore door, which being fast. 
the person had gone round to the back and there en- 
tered. She had perfectly recognised the footstep to be 
that of her son, who had ascended the stairs, and enter- 
ing the bed-chamber had said to her, c Mother, I am 
going a long journey, and am come to bid you good 
bye;' whereupon she had answered, l Oh, dear son, thee 
art dead !' Much alarmed, she had awakened her husband 
and related what had occurred, assuring him that it 
was not a dream, for that she had not been asleep at 
ill. Mr. W. mentions that this curious circumstance 
took place in the year 1754, when he was living' at 
Ottery, and that he had frequently discussed the sub- 
ject with his mother, on whom the impression made 
was even stronger than on himself. Neither deatb nor 
anything else remarkable ensued." 

A somewhat similar instance to this, which I also 
quote from Dr. Binns, is that of a gentleman who 
dreamt that he was pushing violently against the dooi 
of a certain room in a house with which he was well 
acquainted,, whilst the people in that room were at the 
e time actually alarmed by a violent pushing 
against the door, which it required their utmost force 
effectually to resist. As soon as the attempt fco burst 



1 1 WRAITHS. 

open the door had ceased, the house was searched, but 
nothing discovered to account for the disturbance. 

These examples are extremely curious, and they 
conduct us by a natural transition to another depart- 
ment of this mysterious subject. 

There must be few persons who have not heart 
amongst their friends and acquaintance instances oi 
what is called a Wraith — that is, that in the moment of 
death, a person is seen in a place where bodily he is not'. 
I believe the Scotch use this term also in the same 
sense as the Irish word Fetch, which is a person's double 
seen at some indefinite period previous to his death, of 
which such an appearance is generally supposed to be a 
prognostic. The Germans express the same thing by 
the word Doppelganger. 

With respect to the appearance of wraiths, at the 
moment of death, the instances to be met with are so 
numerous and well authenticated, that I generally find 
the most sceptical people unable to deny that some such 
phenomenon exists, although they evade, without, I 
think, diminishing, the difficulty, by pronouncing it to 
be a subjective and not of an objective nature; that is. 
that the image of the dying person is, by some un- 
known operation, presented to the imagination of the 
seer, without the existence of any real outstanding 
figure, from which it is reflected; which reduces such 
instances so nearly to the class of mere sensuous illusion, 
that it seems difficult to draw the distinction. Th« 
distinction these theorists wish to imply, however, is, 
that the latter are purely subjective and self-originating, 
whilst the others have an external cause, although not 
an external visible object — the image seen being pro- 
traded by the imagination of the seer, in consequence of 
an unconscious intuition of the death of the person 
whoso wraith is perceived. 

Instances of this kind of phenomenon have been 
common in all ages of the world, insomuch that Lu- 
cretius, who did not believe in the immortality of tht 



WRAITHS. Ill 

soul, and was yet unable to deny tlie facts, suggested 
the strange theory that the superficial surfaces of all 
bodies were continually flying off like the coats of an 
onion, which accounted for the appearance of wraiths, 
ghosts, doubles, <fcc. ; and a more modern author, 
Gaffarilhis, suggests *-hat corrupting bodies send forth 
vapours, which being compressed by the cold night air, 
appear visible to the eye in the ft rms of men. 

It will not be out of place here, to mention the cir- 
cumstance recorded in Professor Gregory's Abstract 
of Baron Yon Reichenbach's Researches in Magnetism, 
regarding a person called Billing, who acted in the 
capacity of amanuensis to the blind poet, Pfeffel, at 
Colmar. Having treated of various experiments, by 
which it was ascertained that certain sensitive persons 
were not only able to detect electric influences of which 
others were unconscious, but could also perceive, ema- 
nating from the wires and magnets, flames which were 
invisible to people in general; " the Baron," according 
to Dr. Gregory, " proceeded to a useful application of 
the results, which is, says he, so much the more wel- 
come, as it utterly eradicates one of the chief founda- 
tions of superstition, that worst enemy to the development 
of human enlightenment and liberty. A singular oc- 
currence, which took place at Colmar, in the garden of 
the poet Pfeffel, has been noticed by various writers. 
The following are the essential facts. The poet being 
blind, had employed a young clergyman, of the evan- 
gelical church, as amanuensis. Pfeffel, when he walked 
out, was supported and led by this young man, whose 
name was Billing. As they walked in the garden, at 
some distance from the town, Pfeffel observed, that as 
often as they passed over a particular spot, the arm of 
Billing trembled, and he betrayed uneasiness. On 
being questioned, the young man reluctantly confessed 
. that, as often as he passed over that spot, certain 
feelings attacked him which he could not control, and 
that he always experienced the same in passing over any 



F12 WRAITHS. 

place where human bodies lay buried. He added, that 
at night, when he came near such places, he saw super- 
natural appearances. Pfeffel, with a view of curing the 
youth of what he looked on as a fancy, went that night 
with him to the garden. As they approached the spot 
in the dark, Billing perceived a feeble light, and when 
still nearer, he saw a luminous ghost-like figure floating 
>rer the spot. This he described as a female form, 
with one arm laid across the body, the other hanging 
down, floating in the upright posture, but tranquil, the 
feet only a hand-breadth or two above the soil. Pfeffel 
went alone, as the young man declined to follow him, 
up to the place where the figure was said to be, and 
struck about in all directions with his stick, besides 
running actually through the shadow; but the figure 
was not more affected than a flame would have been: 
the luminous form, according to Billing, always returned 
to its original position after these experiments. Many 
things were tried during several months, and numerous 
companies of people were brought to the spot, but the 
matter remained the same, and the ghost-seer adhered 
to his serious assertion, and to the opinion founded on it, 
that some individual lay buried there. At last, Pfeffel 
had the place dug up. At a considerable depth was 
found a firm layer of white lime, of the length and 
breadth of a grave, and of considerable thickness, and 
when this had been broken into, there were found the 
bones of a human being. It was evident that some one 
had been buried in the place, and covered with a thick 
layer of lime (quick-lime), as is generally done in times 
of pestilence, of earthquakes, and other similar events. 
The bones were removed, the pit filled up, the lime 
mixed and scattered abroad, and the surface again made 
smooth. When Billing was now brought back to the 
place, the phenomena did not return, and the nocturnal 
spirit had for ever disappeared. 

" It is hardly necessary to point out to the reader 
what view the author takes of this story, which ex- 



CHEMICAL EMANATIONS. 113 

cited much attention in Germany, because it came from 
the most truthful man alive, and theologians and 
psychologists gave to it sundry terrific meanings, It 
obviously falls into the province of chemical action, and 
thus meets with a simple and clear explanation from 
natural and physical causes. A corpse is a field for 
abundant chemical changes, decompositions, fermenta- 
tion, putrefaction, gasification and general play of affi- 
nities. A stratum of quicklime, in a narrow pit, unites 
its powerful affinities to those of the organic matters, 
and gives rise to a long continued working of che 
whole. Rain water filters through and contributes to 
the action; the lime on the outside of the mass first 
falls to a fine powder, and afterwards with more water, 
forms luinps which are very slowly penetrated by the 
air. Slaked lime prepared for building, but not used, 
on account of some cause connected with a warlike 
state of society some centuries since, has been found 
in subterraneous holes or pits, in the ruins of old 
castles; and the mass, except on the outside, was so 
unaltered, that it has been used for modern buildings, 
It is evident, therefore, that in such circumstances 
there must be a very slow and long continued chemical 
action, partly owing to the slow penetration of the 
mass of lime by the external carbonic acid, partly to 
the changes going on in the remains of animal matter, 
at all events as long as any is left. In the above case 
this must have gone on in PfefFel's garden, and as we 
know that chemical action is invariably associated with 
light, visible to the sensitive, this must have been the 
origin of the luminous appearance, which again must 
have continued until the mutual affinities of the organic 
remains, the lime, the- air, and water, had finally come 
to a state of chemical rest, or equilibrium. As soon 
therefore, as a sensitive person, although otherwise 
quite healthy, came that way, and entered within the 
sphere of the force in action, he must feel by day, like 
Mdlle. Maix, the sensations so often described, and see 



114 CHEMICAL EMANATIONS. 

by night, like Mdlle. Beichel, the luminous appear* 
ance. Ignorance, fear and superstition, would now 
dress up the feebly shining vaporous light into a 
human form, and furnish it with human limbs and 
members; just as we can at pleasure fancy every cloud 
in the sky to represent a man or a demon. 

" The wish to strike a fatal blow at the monster su- 
perstition, which, at no distant period, poured out on 
European society from a similar source, such inex- 
pressible misery, when, in trials for witchcraft, not 
hundreds, not thousands, but hundreds of thousands of 
innocent human beings perished miserably, either on 
the scaffold, at the stake, or by the effects of torture, — 
this desire induced the author to try the experiment 
of bringing, if possible, a highly sensitive patient by 
night to a churchyard. It appeared possible that such 
a person might see over graves in which mouldering 
bodies lie, something similar to that which Billing had 
seen. Mdlle. Beichel had the courage, rare in her sex, 
to gratify this wish of the author. On two very dark 
nights she allowed herself to be taken from the castle 
of BeiseiJberg, where she was living with the author's 
family, to the neighbouring churchyard of Grunzing. 
The result justified his anticipation in the most beau- 
tiful manner. She very soon saw a light, and ob- 
served on one of the graves, along its length, a deli- 
cate, breathing flame: she also saw the same thing, 
only weaker, on a second grave. But she saw neither 
witches nor ghosts; she described the fiery appearance 
as a shining vapour, one to two spans high, extending 
as far as the grave, and floating near its surface. Some 
time afterwards she was taken to two large cemeteries 
near Vienna, where several burials occur daily, and 
graves lie about by thousands. Here she saw numerous 
graves provided with similar lights. Wherever she 
looked, she saw luminous masses scattered about. 
But this appearance was most vivid over the newest 
graves, while in the oldest it could not be perceived. 



CHEMICAL EMANATIONS. 115 

She described the appearance less as a clear flame, 
than as a dense vaporous mass of fire, intermediate be- 
tween fog and flame. On many graves the flame was 
four feet high, so that when she stood on them, it 
surrounded her up to the neck. If she thrust her 
hand into it, it was like putting it into a dense fiery 
cloud. She betrayed no uneasiness, because she had 
all her life been accustomed to such emanations, and 
had leen the same, in the author's experiments, often 
produced by natural causes. Many ghost stories will now 
find their natural explanation. We can also see that 
it was not altogether erroneous, when old women de- 
clared that all had not the gift to see the departed 
wandering about their graves : for it must have always 
been the sensitive alone who were able to perceive the 
light given out by the chemical action going on in the 
corpse. The author has thus, he hopes, succeeded in 
tearing down one of the most impenetrable barriers 
erected by dark ignorance and superstitious folly against 
the progress of natural truth." 

" [The reader will at once apply the above most 
remarkable experiments to the explanation of corpse- 
lights in church yards, which were often visible to 
the gifted alone, to those who had the second sight, 
for example. Many nervous or hysterical females 
must often have been alarmed by white, faintly lumi- 
nous objects, in dark churchyards, to which objects 
fear has given a defined form. In this, as well as in 
numerous other points, which will force themselves on 
the attention of the careful reader of both works, Baron 
Iteichenbach's experiments illustrate the experiences of 
the Seeress of Prevorst. — W. G.J** 

That the flames here described may have originated 
in chemical action, is an opinion I have no intention 
of disputing ; the fact may possibly be so ; such 

* This very curious work I have translated from the GermaD. 
Published by Moore, London, — C. C. 



te: 

phenomenon has frequently been observed hovering 

-^nns and decomposing flesh ; but Z 
cannot pere^ 

Billing, who was an r man. ihi 

vaporon; light in a human form 
lvl." :v. ■ .;• :: — iii: _t1_.t:- .:. I:: :1t ±-t t: !:.■:_- 
I see no proof addu gpo- 

aat or superstitions 

complaiL ppearing to be rather physical tl 

'moral: ai.d it must be a weak person indeed, w 
in company with another, could be excited to such a 
:_ : _ _■_ ..-._.- It ible 

: which appeared only a luminous vapour by 
day might, when renected on a darker atmT-sphere, 
present a denned form : and the suggestion 
possibility might lead to some curious spe: 

. rd to a mystery called the paiinganesia. said 
to have been practi - me of the chemists and 

alcL ~n century. 

3arillus. in a book entitle 'names? 

published in '_ . ' . .-airing on the subject of 

'.-._>:_:■:_- -:__.~\:.- .; ; . ." — :~\- "._..*: -::_ - :_ :_.-.:. v 
instances the plants used for these purposes were re- 
duced to ashes, and no longer retained their form, 
their efficacy which depend uld 

inevitably be d- not the 

case, since, by an admirable poten 
the form, though i: Till retained in 

ashes. This, he observes, may appear strange to those 

that an account of the experiment will be found in 
the works of Mr. D 

:he period, who had h 

-ician, at Cracow, certain phials containir . . 
which, when duly heated, exl 

various plai -mail obscure cloud was first ob- 

.Tadually took on a denned f orm, and 



THE PALING A>'E ; 

presented to 

flower the ashes con Mr. Du Chesne, h 

ever, had never been able to repeal the experim 
though he had made several un- 
do so; but at length he 

following manner : — Kavin. _ me purpose ex- 
tracted the salte from sue \\ . and ha 
left the lie outside the house all n 
morning he found it frozen : and. k his 
form and figure of the nettl; 
sented on the ice that the living plant could 
more perfect. Delighted at 
moned Mr. de Luynes. paid 
behold this curiosity : from whence, he .says, they t :td 

duded. that when a body : ; : m 

still resides in its ashes. 

Kircher. Yallemont, Di ± md :-':.-..■. ::. said i 
have practised this ait of resuscitating the forms .: 
plants from their ashes ; and at the meeting of natu- 
ralists at Stuttgard. in 183d. a Swiss savant seem 
have revived the subject, and given a receipt for the 
experiment extracted from a work by Oetdi r r: 
•'•'Thoughts on the Birth and G-eneraticn of Tdln^d 

o car 

•'•' The earthly husk/' says Oetinger. ,; remains in 
retort. whilst the volatile : s s ri_ : -;- 
perfect in fomi. but void : nee." 

But Oetinger also record? another d of this 

description, which, he says, he fell upon obi A 

von lit him a large bunch of balm. 

laid it tinder the tiles, which wei rm with 

summer' re it dried in the shade. But. it 

being in the month of September, the : d_:l :. ::i I 
and conn...::! d Leaves, without : r >ejling the vola- 
tile salt a. Th & : ill the follow:: when he 
chopped up the balm, put it in;; ; d i axed 
rain water upon it. and placed a reef He 
1 it till the water boiled, and then 
increased the "hereupon there appeared on the 



IIS THE PALTXGANESIA. 

water a coat of yellow oil about the thickness of the 
back of a knife, and this oil shaped itself into the 
forms of innumerable balm leaves, which did not run 
one into another, but remained perfectly distinct and 
defined, and exhibited all the marks that are seen in 
the leaves of the plant. Oetinger says he kept the 
lluid some time, and showed it to a number of people. 
At length, wishing to throw it away, he shook it, and 
the leaves ran into one another with the disturbance 
of the oil, but resumed their distinct shape again as 
soon as it was at rest, the fluid form retaining the 
perfect signature. 

Now, how far these experiments are really practicable, 
I cannot say ; their not being repeated, or not being re- 
peated successfully, is no very decided argument against 
their possibility, as all persons acquainted with the annals 
of chemistry well know ; but there is, certainly, a curious 
coincidence betwixt these details, and the experience of 
Billing ; where it is to be observed, that, according to 
his account — and what right have we to dispute it — 
the figure after being disturbed by PfefFel, always 
resumed its original form. The same peculiarity has 
been observed with respect to some apparitions, where 
the spectator has been bold enough to try the experi- 
ment. In a letter to Dr. Bentley, from the Bev. 
Thomas Wilkins, curate of Warblington, in Hamp- 
shire, written in 1695, wherein he gives an account of 
an apparition which haunted the parsonage house, and 
which he himself, and several other persons had seen, 
he particularly mentions that, thinking it might be 
some fellow hid in the room, he put his arm out to feel 
it, and his hand seemingly went through the body of it, 
md felt no manner of substance until it readied the 
wall, " then I drew back my hand, but still the appa- 
rition was in the same place." 

Yet this spectre did not appear above or near a 
grave, but moved from place to place, and gave con- 
siderable annoyance to tin inhabitants of the rectory. 



CORPSE CANDLES. 119 

With respect to the lights over the graves, sufficing 
to account for the persuasion regarding what is called 
corpse candies, they certainly, up to a certain point, 
afford a very satisfactory explanation, but that expla- 
nation, does not comprehend the whole of the mystery, 
for most of those persons who have professed to see 
corpse candles, have also asserted that they were not 
always stationary over the graves, but sometimes 
moved from place to place, as in the following instance, 
which was related to me by a gentleman, who assured 
me he received the account from the person who wit- 
nessed the phenomenon. Now, this last fact, I mean 
the locomotion ol the lights, will, of course, be disputed; 
but so was their existence; yet they exist for all that, 
and may travel from place to place, for anything we 
know to the contrary. 

The story related to me, or a similar instance, is, I 
think, mentioned by Mrs. Grant; but it was to the 
effect that a minister, newly inducted in his cure, was 
standing one evening leaning over the wall of the 
churchyard which adjoined the manse, when he ob- 
served a light hovering over a particular spot. Sup- 
posing it to be somebody with a lanthorn, he opened 
the wicket, and went forward to ascertain who it might 
be; but before he reached the spot the light moved 
onwards; and he followed, but could see nobody. It 
did not rise far from the ground, but advanced 
rapidly across the road, entered a wood, and ascended 
a hill, till it at length disappeared at the door of a 
farm-house. Unable to comprehend of what nature 
this light could be, the minister was deliberating 
whether to make inquiries at the house or return, when 
it appeared again, seeming to come out of the house, 
accompanied by another, passed him, and going over 
the same ground, they both disappeared on the spot 
where he had first observed the phenomenon. He left 
a mark on the grave by which he might recognise it. 
and the next day inquired of the sexton whose it was. 



I2U REMARKABLE DREAM. 

The man said, it belonged to a family that lived up the 
hill, indicating the house the light had stopped at. 
named MT). — but that it was a considerable time since 
any one had been buried there. The minister was 
extremely surprised to learn, in the course of the day, 
that a child of that family had died of scarlet fever on 
the preceding evening. "With respect to the class of 
phenomena accompanied by this phosphorescent light, 
I shall have more to say by and by. The above will 
appear a very incredible story to many people, and 
there was a time that it would have appeared equally 
so to myself; but I have met with so much strange 
corroborative evidence, that I no longer feel myself 
entitled to reject it. I asked the gentleman who told 
me the story whether he believed it; he said that he 
could not believe in anything of the sort. I then 
inquired if he would accept the testimony of that 
minister on any other question, and he answered, " Most 
assuredly." As, however, I shall have occasion to recur 
to this subject in a subsequent chapter, I will leave it aside 
for the present, and relate some of the facts which led 
me to the consideration of the above theories and expe- 
riments. Dr. S. relates, that a Madame T., in Prussia, 
dreamt, on the 16th March, 1832, that the door opened, 
and her godfather, Mr. D., who was much attached to 
her, entered the room, dressed as he usually was when 
prepared for church on Sundays; and that, knowing 
him to be in bad health, she asked him what he was 
loing abroad at such an early hour, and whether he 
was quite well again. Whereupon he answered, that 
he was; and, being about to undertake a very long 
journey, he had come to bid her farewell, and to intrust 
her with a commission, which was, that she would 
deliver a letter he had written to his wife; but accom- 
panying it with an injunction that she, the wife, was 
not to open it till that day four years, when he would 
return himself, precisely at five o'clock in the morning, 
to fetch the answer; till which period ho charged her 



TtEMARKABLE DREAM. 12] 

not to break the seal. He then handed her a iettei, 
sealed with black; the writing on which shone through 
the paper, so that she, the dreamer, was able to per- 
ceive that it contained an announcement to Mrs. D., 
the wife, with whom, on account of the levity of her 
character, he had long lived unhappily, that she would 
die that time four years. At this moment, the sleeper 
was awakened by what appeared to her a pressure of 
the hand, and, feeling an entire conviction that this 
was something more than an ordinary dream, she was 
not surprised to learn that her godfather was dead. 
She related the dream to Madame D., omitting, how- 
ever, to mention the announcement contained in the 
letter, which she thought the dream plainly indicated 
was not to be communicated. The widow laughed at 
the story, soon resumed her gay life, and married again. 
In the winter of 1835-6, however, she was attacked by 
an intermittent fever, on which occasion, Dr. S. was 
summoned to attend her. After various vicissitudes 
she finally sunk; and, on the 16th of March, 1836, 
exactly at five o'clock in the morning, she suddenly 
started up in her bed, and, fixing her eyes apparently 
on some one she saw standing at the foot, she ex- 
claimed, " "What are you come for ? God be gracious to 
me! I never believed it!" She then sank back, 
closed her eyes, which she never opened again, and, in 
a quarter of an hour afterwards, expired very calmly. 

A friend of mine, Mrs. M., a native of the West 
Indies, was at Blair Logie, at the period of the death 
of Dr. Abercrombie, in Edinburgh, with whom she was 
extremely intimate. Dr. A. died quite suddenly with- 
out any previous indisposition, just as he was about to 
go out in his carriage, at eleven o'clock on a Thursday 
morning. On the night between the Thursday and 
Friday, Mrs. M. dreamt that she saw the family of Dr. 
A . all dressed in white, dancing a solemn funeral dance, 
upon which she awoke, wondering that she should have 
dreamt a thing so incongruous, since it was contrary to 



122 OPINION" OF PSYCHOLOGISTS. 

their custom to dance on any occasion. Immediately 
afterwards, whilst speaking to her maid who had come 
to call her, she saw Dr. Abercrombie against the wall 
with his jaw fallen and a livid countenance, mourniully 
shaking his head as he looked at her. She passed the 
day in great uneasiness, and wrote to inquire for the* 
Doctor, relating what had happened, and expressing 
her certainty that he was dead ; the letter was seen by 
several persons in Edinburgh, on the day of its arrival. 

The two following cases seem rather to belong to 
what is called in the East, Second Hearing, although 
sympathy was probably the exciting cause of the phe- 
nomena. A lady and gentleman in Berwickshire, were 
awakened one night by a loud cry, which they both 
immediately recognised to proceed from the voice of 
their son, who was then absent, and at a considerable 
distance. Tidings subsequently reached them that 
exactly at that period their son had fallen overboard 
and was drowned ; and on another occasion, in Perth- 
shire, a person aroused her husband one night, saying 
that their son was drowned, for she had been awakened 
by the splash. Her presentiment also proved too well 
founded, the young man having fallen from the mast- 
head of the ship. In both cases we may naturally 
conclude, that the thoughts of the young men at the 
moment of the accident, would rush homewards j and, 
admitting Dr. Ennemosers theory of polarity, the pas- 
sive sleepers became the recipients of the force. I con- 
fess, however, that the opinions of another section of 
philosophers appear to me more germain to the matter ; 
vilthough to many persons they will doubtless be diffi- 
cult of acceptance, from their appertaining to those 
views commonly called mystical. 

These psychologists then believe, as did Socrates and 
Plato, and others of the ancients, that in certain con- 
ditions of the body, which conditions may arise natu- 
rally, or be produced artificially, the links which unite 
it with the spirit may be more or less loosened; and 



OPINION OF PSYCHOLOGISTS. 123 

that the latter may thus be temporarily disjoined from 
the former, and so enjoy a foretaste of its future destiny. 
In the lowest or first degree of this disunion, we are 
awake, though scarcely conscious, whilst the imagination 
is vivified to an extraordinary amount, and our fancy 
supplies images almost as lively as the realities. This, 
probably, is the temporary condition of inspired poety 
and eminent discoverers. 

Sleep is considered another stage of this disjunction, 
and the question has even been raised, whether, when 
the body is in profound sleep, the spirit is not altoge- 
ther free and living in another world, whilst the organic 
life proceeds as usual, and sustains the temple till the 
return of its inhabitant. Without at present attempt- 
ing to support or refute this doctrine, I will only observe, 
that once admitting the possibility of the disunion, all 
consideration of time must be set aside as irrelevant to 
the question ; for spirit freed from matter, must move 
with the rapidity of thought — in short, a spirit must be 
where its thoughts and abjections are. 

It is the opinion of these psychologists, however, 
that in the normal and healthy condition of man, the 
union of body, soul, and spirit, is most complete ; and 
that all the degrees of disunion in the waking state are 
degrees ol morbid derangement. Hence it is that som- 
nambulists and clairvoyantes are chiefly to be found 
amongst sickly women. There have been persons who 
have appeared to possess a power which they could 
exert at will, whereby they withdrew from their bodies, 
these remaining during the absence ot the spirit in a 
state of catalepsy, scarcely, if at all, to be distinguished 
from death. 

I say withdrew from their bodies, assuming that to be 
the explanation of the mystery; for, of course, it is but 
an assumption. Epimenides is recorded to have pos- 
sessed this faculty, and Hermotinus, of Clazomenes, is 
said to have wandered in spirit over the world, whilst 
bis body lay apparently dead. At length, his vrife 



124 CASES OF TRANCE. 

taking advantage of this absence of his soul, burnt his 
body, and thus intercepted its return. So say Lucien 
and Pliny the elder ; and Yarro relates, that the eldest 
of two brothers, named Corndius, being supposed to die, 
his will was opened and preparations were made for his 
funeral by the other brother, who was declared his heir 
In the mean time, however, Corndius revived, and told 
the astonished attendants whom he summoned by clap- 
ping his hands, that he had just come from his younger 
brother, who had committed his daughter to his care, 
and informed him where he had buried some gold, re- 
questing that the funeral preparations he had made 
might be converted to his own use. Immediately after- 
wards, the news arrived that the younger brother was 
unexpectedly deceased, and the gold was found at the 
place indicated. The last appears to have been a case 
of natural trance; but the two most remarkable in- 
stances of voluntary trance I have met with in modern 
times, is that of Colonel Townshend, and the Dervish 
who allowed himself to be buried. With regard to the 
former, he could, to all appearance, die whenever ho 
pleased ; his heart ceased to beat, there was no peroep- 
tible respiration, and his whole frame became cold and 
rigid as death itself; the features being shrunk and 
colourless, and the eyes glazed and ghastly. He would 
continue in this state for several hours, and then gra- 
dually revive ; but the revival does not appear to have 
been an effort of will, or rather, we are not informed 
whether ifc was so or not. Neither are we told whether 
he brought any recollections back with him, nor how 
this strauge faculty was first developed or discovered — all 
very important points and well worthy of investigation. I 
find from the account of Dr. Cheyne, who attended him, 
that Colonel Townshend's own way of describing the phe- 
nomenon to which he was subject, was, that he could 
" die or expire when he pleased; and yet by an effort. 
or somehow, he could come to life again." He per- 
formed the experiment in the presence of three medical 



CASES OF TRANCE. 125 

men, one of whom kept his hand on his heart, another 
held his wiist, and the third placed a looking-glass 
before his lips, and they found that all traces of respira- 
tion and pulsation gradually ceased, insomuch that, 
after consulting about his condition for some time, they 
were leaving the room persuaded that he was really 
dead, when signs of life appeared, and he sk <vly revived. 
He did not die whilst repeating the experiment as has 
been sometimes asserted. 

This reviving " by an effort or somehow/' seems to be 
better explained by the hypothesis I have suggested 
than by any other; namely, that as in the case of Mr, 
Holloway, to be presently mentioned, his spirit or soul, 
was released from his body, but a sufficient rapport 
maintained to reunite them. 

With respect to the Dervish or Fakeer, an account 
of his singular faculty was, I believe, first presented to 
the public in the Calcutta papers, about nine or ten 
years ago. He had then frequently exhibited it for the 
satisfaction of the natives, but subsequently he was put 
to proof by some of the European officers and residents. 
Captain "Wade, political agent at Loodhiana, was pre- 
sent when he was disinterred, ten months after he had 
been buried by General Ventura, in presence of the 
Maharajah and many of his principal Sirdars. 

It appears that the man previously prepared himself 
by some processes, which he says, temporarily annihilate 
the power of digestion, so that milk received into the 
stomach undergoes no change. He next forces all the 
breath in his body into his brain, which becomes very 
hot, upon which the lungs collapse, and the heart ceases 
to beat. He then stops up with wax every aperture 
of the body through which air could enter, except the 
mouth, but the tongue is so turned back as to close the 
gullet, upon which a state of insensibility ensues. He 
. is then stripped arid put into a linen bag, and on the 
occasion in question, this bag was sealed with Runjeet 
Sing's own seal. It was then placed in a deal box* 



12G CASES OF TRANCE. 

which was also locked and sealed, and the box being 
Ihuried in a vault, the earth was thrown over it and 
trodden down, after which a crop of barley was sown on 
the spot and sentries placed to watch it. The Mahara- 
jah, however, was so sceptical, that, in spite of all these 
precautions, he had him twice, in the course of the ten 
months, dug up and examined; and each time he was 
found to be exactly in the same state as when they had 
shut him up. 

"When he is disinterred, the first step towards his 
recovery is to turn back his tongue, which is found 
quite stiff, and requires for some time to be retained in 
its proper position by the finger; warm water is poured 
upon him, and his eyes and lips moistened with ghee, 
or oil. His recovery is much more rapid than might 
be expected, and he is soon able to recognise the by- 
standers and converse. He says that during this state 
of trance his dreams are ravishing, and that it is very 
painful to be awakened, but I do not know that he has 
ever disclosed any of his experiences. His only appre- 
hension seems to be, lest he should be attacked by insects, 
to avoid which accident the box is slung to the ceiling. 
The interval seems to be passed in a complete state of 
hibernation; and when he is taken up no pulse is per- 
ceptible, and his eyes are glazed like those of a corpse. 

He subsequently refused to submit to the conditions 
proposed by some English officers, and thus incurred 
their suspicions that the whole thing was an imposition; 
but the experiment has been too often repeated by people 
very well capable of judging, and under too stringent 
precautions, to allow of this mode of escaping the 
difficulty. The man assumes to be holy, and is very 
probably a worthless fellow, but that does not affect the 
question one way or the other. Indian princes do not 
permit themselves to be imposed on with impunity; and 
as llunjeet Sing would not value the man's life at a pin's 
point, he would neglect no means of debarring him all 
access to food or air. 



CASES OF TRANCE. 12? 

In the above quoted cases, except in those of Corn% 
dius and Hermotinus, the absence of the spirit is alone 
suggested to the spectator by the condition of the body; 
since the memory of one state does not appear to have 
been carried into the other — if the spirit wandered into 
other regions it brings no tidings back; but we have 
many cases recorded where this deficient evidence seems 
to be supplied. The magicians and soothsayers oi the 
northern countries, by narcotics and other means, pro- 
duced a cataleptic state of the body resembling death, 
when their prophetic faculty is to be exercised; and 
although we all know that an alloy of imposition is 
generally mixed up with these exhibitions, still it is 
past a doubt, that a state of what we call clear-seeing 
is thus induced; and that on awaking, they bring 
tidings from various parts of the world, of actions then 
performing and events occurring, which subsequent 
investigations have verified. 

One of the most remarkable cases of this kind, is 
that recorded by Jung Stilling; of a man, who about 
the year 1740 resided in the neighborhood of Phila- 
delphia, in the United States. His habits were retired, 
and he spoke little: he was grave, benevolent, and 
pious, and nothing was known against his character, 
except that he had the reputation of possessing some 
secrets that were not altogether lawful. Many extra- 
ordinary stories were told of him, and amongst the rest 
the following: — The wife of a ship captain, whose 
husband was on a voyage to Europe and Africa, and 
from whom she had been long without tidings, over- 
whelmed with anxiety for his safety, was induced 1o 
address herself to this person. Having listened to ler 
story, he begged her to excuse him for a while, wh :n he 
would bring her the intelligence she required. He then 
passed into an inner room, and she sat herself down to 
wait; but his absence continuing longer than she ex- 
pected, she became impatient, thinking he had forgotten 
her; and softly approaching the door, she peeped through 



] 

some aperture, and to her surprise beheld him lying on a 
sofa, as motionless as if he were dead. She of course 
did not think it advisable to disturb him, but waited 
his return, when he told her that her husband had not 
oeen able to write to her for such and such reasons; but 
that he was then in a coffee-house in London, and would 
very shortly be home again. Accordingly he arrived, 
and as the lady learnt from him that the causes of his 
unusual silence had been precisely those alleged by the 
man, she felt extremely desirous of ascertaining the 
truth of the rest of the information; and in this she 
was gratified; for he no sooner set his eyes on the 
magician than he said that he had seen him before, on a 
in a coffee-house in London; and that he 
toll him that his wife was extremely uneasy about him; 
and that he, the captain, had thereon mentioned how he 
had been prevented writing; adding that he was on the 
eve of embarking for America. He had then lost sight 
of the granger amongst the throng, and knew nothing 
more about him. 

I have no authority for this story, but that of Jung 
Stilling; and if it stood alone, it might appear very 
incredible; but it is supported by so many parallel ex- 
amples of information given by people in somnambulic 
states, that we are not entitled to reject it or. the score 
of impossibij 

The late Mr. John Holloway, of the Bank of Eng- 
land, brother to the engraver of that name, related of 

'glit in bed with his wife, and 
unable to sle< p lie had fixed his eyes and thong 
uncommon intensity on a beautiful star that was shining 
in at the window, when he suddenly found his spirit 
released from h: ring into that bright 

sphere. But. instantly seized with anxiety for the 
anguish of his wife, if ly apparently 

1 beside her, he returned, and re-entered it with 

convulsions with 
which some somnambnles of the highest order are 



CASES OF TRANCE. 129 

\;ened.) He described that returning was returning 

to darkness; and that whilst the spirit was free, he was 

:iate!i/ in the light or the dark, ac ■ ' < his 

■ /hts were with his wife or with the star. He • 

: he always avoided anything that could produce a 

repetition of this accident, the consequences of it being 

ry distressing. 

We know that by intense contemplation of this sort 
the Dervishes produce a state of ecstasy, in which they 
pretend to be transported to other spheres; and not 
only the Seeress of Prevorst, but many other persons in 
a highly magnetic state, have asserted the same tiling 
of themselves; and certainly the singular conformity of 
the intelligence they bring is not a little remarkable. 

Dr. Kerner relates of his somnainbule, Frederica 
Hauffe, that one day. at TTeinsberg, she exclaimed in 
her sleep. " Oh, God !" She immediately awoke, as if 
aroused by the exclamation, and said that she seemed to 
have heard two voices proceeding from herself. At this 
time, her lather was lying dead in iris coffin, at Oberts- 
cenfeld. and Dr. Fohr, the physician, who had attended 
him in his illness, was sitting with another person in an 
adjoining room, with the door open: when he heard the 
exclamation, " Oh, G-odf so distinctly, that, feeling 
certain there was nobody there, he hastened to the 
coffin, from whence the sound had appeared to proceed, 
thinking that Mr, W.'s death had been only apparent, 
and that he was reviving. The other person, who was 
in uncle of Frederica s, had heard notliing. 3STo person 
3 discovered from whom the exclamation could have 
•ceded, and the circumstance remained a mystery 
rill an explanation ensued. Plutarch relates, that a 
certain man. called Thespesius, having fallen from 
a great height, was taken up apparently dead from the 
shock, although no external wound was to be discovered. 
On the third day after the accident, however, when 
they were about to bury him. he unexpectedly revived; 
it was afterwards observed, to the surprise of all 



130 CASES OF TRAJfCH. 

who knew hhn, that, from being a vicious reprobate, ho 
became one of the most virtuous of men. On being 
interrogated with respect to the cause of the change 
he related that, during the period of his bodily insensi- 
bility, it appeared to him that he was dead, and that 
he had been first plunged into the depths of an ocean, 
out of which, however, he soon emerged, and then, at 
one view, the whole of space was disclosed to him. 
Eveiything appeared in a different aspect, and the 
dimensions of the planetary bodies, and the intervals 
betwixt them, were tremendous; whilst his spirit seemed 
to float in a sea of light, like a ship in calm waters. 
He also described many other things that he had seen; 
he said that the souls of the dead, on quitting the body, 
appeared like a bubble of light, out of which a human 
form was quickly evolved. That, of these, some shot 
away at once in a direct line, with great rapidity, 
whilst others, on the contrary, seemed unable to find 
their due course, and continued to hover about, going 
hither and thither, till at length they also darted away 
in one direction or another. He recognised few of 
these persons he saw, but those whom he did, and 
sought to address, appeared as if they were stunned and 
amazed, and avoided him with terror. Their voices 
were indistinct, and seemed to be uttering vague 
lamentings. There were others, also, who floated farther 
from the earth, who looked bright, and were gracious; 
these avoided the approach of the last. In short, the 
demeanour and appearance of these spirits manifested 
clearly their degrees of joy and grief. Thespesius was 
then informed by one of them, that he was not dead, 
but that he had been permitted to come there by a 
divine decree, and that his soul, which was yet attached 
to his body, as by an anchor, would return to it again. 
Thespesius then observed, that he was different to the 
dead, by whom he was surrounded, and this observation 
Seemed to restore him to his recollection. They were 
transparent, and environed by a radiance, but he seemed 



CASES OF TRANCE. 131 

to trail after him a dark ray, or line of shadow. These 
spirits also presented very different aspects; some were 
entirely pervaded by a mild, clear radiance, like that of 
the full moon; through others there appeared faint 
streaks, that diminished this splendour; whilst others, 
on the contrary, were distinguished by spots, or stripes 
of black, or of a dark colour, like the marks on the skin 
of a viper. 

There is a circumstance which I cannot help here 
mentioning in connexion with this history of Thespesius, 
which, on first reading it, struck me very forcibly. 

About three years ago, I had several opportunities of 
seeing two young girls, then under the care of a Mr. A., 
of Edinburgh, who hoped, chiefly by means of mag- 
netism, to restore them to sight. One was a maid- 
servant afflicted with amaurosis, whom he had taken 
into his house from a charitable desire to be of use to 
her; the other, who had been blind from her childhood, 
was a young lady in better circumstances, the daughter 
of respectable tradespeople in the north of England. 
The girl with amaurosis was restored to sight, and the 
other was so far benefited that she could distinguish 
houses, trees, carriages, &c, and, at length, though ob- 
scurely, the features of a person near her. At this 
period of the cure she was unhappily removed, and may 
possibly have relapsed into her former state. My 
reason, however, for alluding to these young women on 
this occasion, is, that they were in the habit of saying, 
when in the magnetic state — for they were both, more 
or less, clairvoy antes, — that the people whom Dr. A. 
was magnetising in the same room, presented very 
different appearances. Some of them they described as 
looking bright; whilst others were, in different degrees, 
streaked -with black. 

One or two they mentioned, over whom there seemed 
to hang a sort of cloud, like a ragged veil of darkness. 
They also said, though this was before any tidings of 
Baron von Reichenbacb'* discoveries had reached this 



132 CASES OF TRANCE, 

country, that they saw light streaming from the fingers 
of Mr. A., when he magnetised them; and that some- 
times his whole person seemed to them radiant, Now, 
I am positively certain that neither Mr. A., nor these 
girls, had ever heard of this story of Thespesius; neither 
had I, at that time; and I confess, when I did meet 
with it, I was a good deal struck by the coincidence. 
These young people said, that it was the " goodness or 
badness," meaning the moral state, of the persons that 
was thus indicated. Now, surely this concurrence 
betwixt the man mentioned by Plutarch, and these 
two girls — the one of whom had no education whatever, 
and the other very little — is worthy of some regard. 

I once asked a young person, in a highly clairvoyante 
state, whether she ever saw "the spirits of them that 
had passed away;" for so she designated the dead, never 
using the word death herself, in any of its forms. She 
answered me, that she did. 

" Then where are they?" I inquired. 

" Some are waiting, and some are gone on before." 

" Can you speak to them?" I asked. 

" No," she replied, " there is no meddling nor no 
direction." 

In her waking state, she would have been quite in- 
capable of these answers; and that " some are waiting 
and some gone on before," seems to be much in accord- 
ance with the vision of Thespesius. 

Dr. Passavant mentions a peasant boy, who, after a 
short but painful illness, apparently died, his body being 
perfectly stiff. He, however, revived, complaining 
bitterly of being called back to life. He said he had 
been in a delightful place, and seen his deceased rela- 
tions. There was a great exaltation of the faculties 
after this; and having been before rather stupid, he 
now, whilst his body lay stiff and immovable and his 
closed; prayed and discoursed with eloquence. He 
continued in this state for seven weeks, but finally 
( red. 



CASES OF TRANCE. 133 

In the yea** 1733, Johaim Schwerzeger fell into a 
similar state of trance, after an illness, but revived. 
He said lie had seen his whole life, and every sin he had 
committed, even those he had quite forgotten — every- 
thing had been as present to him as when it happened. 
He also lamented being recalled from the happiness he 
was about to enter into; but said that he had only two 
days to spend in this valley of tears, during which time 
he wished everybody that would, should come and 
listen to what he had to tell them. His before sunken 
eyes now looked bright, his face had the bloom of 
youth, and he discoursed so eloquently that the minister 
said they had exchanged offices, and the sick man had 
become his teacher. He died at the time he had foretold. 

The most frightful cases of trance recorded, are those 
in which the patient retains entire consciousness, 
although utterly unable to exhibit any evidence of 
life; and it is dreadful to think how many persons 
may have been actually buried, hearing every nail that 
was screwed into their own coffin, and as perfectly 
aware of the whole ceremony as those who followed 
them to the grave. 

Dr. Binns mentions a girl, at Canton, who lay m 
this state, hearing every word that was said around 
her, but utterly unable to move a finger. She tried 
to cry out, but could not, and supposed that she was 
really dead. The horror of finding herself about to 
be buried, at length caused a perspiration to appear on 
her skin, and she finally revived. She described that 
she felt that her soul had no power to act upon her 
body, and that it seemed to be in her body and out oj 
it, at the same time. 

■ Now, this is very much what the somnambulists say — 
their soul is out of the body, but is still so far in rap- 
port with it, that it does not leave it entirely. Pro- 
bably magnetism would be the best means of reviving a 
person from this state. 

The custom of burying people before there are un- 



134 CASES OF TRANCE. 

mistakable signs of death, is a very condemnable one. 
A Mr. M'G. fell into a trance, some few years since, 
and remained insensible for five days, his mother being 
meanwhile quite shocked that the physician would not 
allow him to be buried. He had, afterwards, a recur- 
rence of the malady which continued seven days. 

A Mr. S., who had been some time out of the 
country, died apparently, two days after his return 
As he had eaten of a pudding which his step-mother 
had made for his dinner, with her own hands, people 
took into their heads she had poisoned him; and the 
grave being opened for purposes of investigation, the 
body was found lying on its face. 

One of the most frightful cases extant, is that of Dr. 
Walker, of Dublin, who had so strong a presentiment 
on this subject, that he had actually written a treatise 
against the Irish custom of hasty burial. He himself, 
subsequently died, as was believed of a fever. His 
decease took place in the night, and on the following 
day he was interred, At this time, Mrs. Bellamy, the 
once celebrated actress, was in Ireland ; and as she had 
promised him, in the course of conversation, that she 
would take care he should not be laid in the earth 
till unequivocal signs of dissolution had appeared, she 
no sooner heard of what had happened, than she took 
measures to have the grave re-opened ; but it was un- 
fortunately too late ; Dr. Walker had evidently revived, 
and had turned upon his side; but life was now quite 
extinct. The case related by Lady Fanshawe, of her 
mother, is very remarkable, from the confirmation 
furnished by the event of her death. 

" My mother being sick of a fever," says Lady F., 
in her memoirs, " her friends and servants thought her 
deceased, and she lay in that state for two days and a 
night ; but Mr. Winslow, coming to comfort my father, 
went into my mother's room, and looking earnestly in 
her face, said, ' She was so handsome, and looked so 



CASES OF TRANCE. 135 

lovely, that he could not think her dead ; and suddenly 
taking a lancet out of his pocket, he cut the sole of her 
foot, which bled; upon this he immediately caused her 
to be removed to the bed again, and to be rubbed, and 
such means used that she came to life, and opening her 
eyes, saw two of her kinswomen standing by her, Lady 
Knollys and Lady Russell, both with great wide sleeves, 
as the fashion then was; and she said, ' Did you not 
promise me fifteen years, and are you come again 
already]' which they not understanding, bade her keep 
her spirits quiet in that great weakness wherein she 
was; but, some hours after, she desired my father and 
Dr. Howlesworth might be left alone with her, to 
whom she said, ' I will acquaint you, that during my 
trance, I was in great grief, but in a place I could 
neither distinguish nor describe; but the sense of leav- 
ing my girl, who is dearer to me than all my children, 
remained a trouble upon my spirits. Suddenly I saw 
two by me, clothed in long white garments, and me- 
thought I fell down upon my face in the dust, and they 
asked me why I was so troubled in so great happiness. 
I replied, ' Oh, let me have the same grant given to 
Hezekiah, that I may live fifteen years to see my 
daughter a woman,' .to which they answered, 'It is 
done !' and then at that instant I awoke out of my 
trance !' And Dr. Howlesworth did affirm, that that 
day she died, made just fifteen years from that time." 

I have met with a somewhat similar case to this, 
which occurred to the mother of a very respectable 
person, now living in Edinburgh. She having been ill, 
was supposed to be dead, and preparations were making 
for her funeral, when one of her fingers was seen to 
move, and restoratives being applied, she revived. As 
soon as she could speak, she said that she had been at 
the gates of heaven, where she saw some going in, but 
that they told her she was not ready. Amongst those 
who had passed her, and had been admitted, she said 



136 CASES OF TRANCE. 

she had seen Mr. So-and-so, the baker, and the remark- 
able thing was, that during the time she had been in 
the trance, this man had died. 

On the 10th of January, 1717, Mr. John Gardner, a 
minister at Elgin, fell into a trance, and being to all 
appearance dead, he was put into a coffin, and on the 
second day was carried to the grave. But fortunately 
a noise being heard the coffin was opened, and he was 
found alive and taken home again ; where, according to 
the record, " he related many strange and amazing 
things which he had seen in the other world." 

Not to mention somnambules, there are numerous 
other cases recorded of persons who have said, on 
waaking from a trance, that they had been in the other 
world; though frequently the freed spirit, supposing 
that to be the interpretation of the mystery, seems 
busied with the affairs of the earth and brings tidings 
from distant places, as in the case of the American 
above mentioned. Perhaps in these latter cases, the 
disunion is less complete. Dr. Werner relates of his 
somnambule, that it was after those attacks of catalepsy 
in which her body had lain stiff and cold, that she used 
to say she had been wandering away through other 
spheres. Where the catalepsy is spontaneous and in- 
voluntaiy, and resembles death so nearly as not to be 
distingi ished from it, we may naturally conclude, if we 
admit this hypothesis at all, that the seeing of the 
spirit would be clear in proportion to its disentangle- 
ment from the flesh. 

I have spoken above of dream compelling or sug- 
gesting, and I have heard of persons who have a 
power of directing their own dreams to any particular 
subject. 

This faculty may be, in some degree, analogous to 
that possessed by the American, and a few somnam- 
bulic persons, who appear to carry the recollections of 
one state into the other. The effects produced by the 
witch potions seem to have been somewhat similar. 



TRANCE. 137 

inasmuch as they dreamt what they expected or wished 
to dream. Jung Stilling mentions, that a woman gave- 
in evidence, on a witch trial, that having visited the 
so-called witch, she had found her concocting a potion 
over the fire, of which she had advised her, the visitor, 
to drink, assuring her that she would then accompany 
her to the Sabbath. The woman said, lest she should 
give offence, she had put the vessel to her lips, but had 
not drank of it; the witch, however, swallowed the 
whole, and immediately afterwards sunk down upon 
the earth in a profound sleep, where she had left her. 
When she went to see her on the following day, she 
declared she had been to the Brocken. 

Paolo Minucci relates, that a woman accused oi 
sorcery, being brought before a certain magistrate, at 
Florence, she not only confessed her guilt, but she 
declared that, provided they would let her return home 
and anoint herself, she would attend the Sabbath that 
very night. The magistrate, a man more enlightened 
than the generality of his contemporaries, consented. 
The woman went home, used her unguent, and fell 
immediately into a profound sleep; whereupon they 
tied her to the bed, and tested the reality of the sleep 
by burns, blows, and pricking her with sharp instru- 
ments. "When she awoke on the following day, she 
related that she had attended the Sabbath. I could 
quote several similar facts; and Gassendi actually 
endeavoured to undeceive some peasants who believed 
themselves witches, by composing an ointment that 
produced the same effects as their own magical applica- 
tions. 

In the year 154:5, Andre* Laguna, physician to Pope- 
Julius III., anointed a patient of his, who was suffering 
from frenzy and sleeplessness, with an unguent found 
in the house of a sorcerer, who had been arrested. The 
patient slept lor thirty- six hours consecutively, and 
when, with much difficulty, she was awakened, she com- 
plained that they had torn her from the most ravish 



138 WITCH POTIONS. 

ing delights; delights which seem to have rivalled the 
heaven of the Mahometan. According to Llorente, 
the women who were dedicated to the service of the 
Mother of the Gods, heard continually the sounds of 
flutes and tambourines, beheld the joyous dances of the 
fauns and satyrs, and tasted of intoxicating pleasures, 
doubtless from a similar cause. 

It is difficult to imagine, that all the unfortunate 
wretches who suffered death at the stake in the middle 
ages, for having attended the unholy assemblies they 
described, had no faith in their own stories; yet, in 
spite of the unwearied vigilance of public authorities, 
and private malignity, no such assemblage was ever 
detected. How, then, are we to account for the per- 
tinacity of their confessions, but by supposing them 
the victims of some extraordinary delusion'? In a 
paper addressed to the Inquisition, by Llorente, he does 
not scruple to assert, that the crimes imputed to, and 
confessed by, wdtches, have most frequently no existence 
but in their dreams: and that their dreams are produced 
by the drugs with which they anointed themselves. 

The recipes for these compositions, which had 
descended traditionally from age to age, have been lost 
since witchcraft went out of fashion, and modern 
science lias no time to investigate secrets which appear 
to be more curious than profitable; but in the profound 
sleep produced by these applications, it is not easy to 
say what phenomena may have occurred to justify, or, 
at least, account for, their self-accusations. 



139 



CHAPTER VII. 

WRAITHS. 

Such instances as that of Lady Fanshawe, and othe~ 
similar ones, certainly seem to favour the hypothesis^ 
that the spirit is freed from the body, when the latter 
becomes no longer a fit habitation for it. It does se 
when actual death supervenes, and the reason of itsv 
departure we may naturally conclude to be, that the 
body has ceased to be available for its manifestations; 
and in these cases, which seem so nearly allied to death, 
that, frequently, there would actually be no revival but 
for the exertions used, it does not seem very difficult to* 
conceive that this separation may take place. Whem 
we are standing by a death bed, all we see is the death 
of the body- — of the going forth of the spirit we see- 
nothing; so in cases of apparent death, it may depart 
and return, whilst we are aware of nothing but the 
reanimation of the organism. Certain it is, that the 
Scriptures countenance this view of the case in several 
instances; thus, Luke says, chap. viii. verse 34, "And he 
put them all out, and took her by the hand, and called 
saying, 'Maid, arise!' And her spirit came again, and 
she arose straightway," &c, &c. 

Dr a Wigan observes, when speaking of the effects of 
temporary pressure on the brain, that the mind is not> 
annihilated, because, if the pressure is timely removed,. 
it is restored, though, if continued too long, the body 
will be resolved into its primary elements; and he- 
compares the human organism to a watch, which w& 
can either stop or set going at will, which watch, ha 

K 



140 WRAITHS. 

says, will also be gradually resolved into its ultimate 
elements by chemical action; and, he adds, that, to ask 
where the mind is, during the interruption, is like 
asking where the motion of the watch is. I think a 
wind instrument would be a better simile, for the 
motion of the watch is purely mechanical. It requires 
no informing, intelligent spirit to breathe into its aper- 
tures and make it the vehicle of the harshest discords, 
or of the most eloquent discourses. u The divinely 
mysterious essence, which we call the soul," he adds, 
" is not then the mind, from which it must be carefully 
distingushed, if we would hope to make any progress 
in mental philosophy. Where the soul resides during 
the suspension of the mental powers by asphyxia, I 
know not, any more than I know where it resided 
before it was united with that specific compound of 
bones, muscles, and nerve." 

By a temporary pressure on the brain, the mind is 
certainly not annihilated, but its manifestations by 
means of the brain are suspended; the source of these 
manifestations being the soul or anima, in which 
dwells the life, fitting the temple for its divine in- 
habitant, the spirit. The connexion of the soul and 
the body is probably a much more intimate one 
than that of the latter with the spirit; though the 
soul, as well as the spirit, is immortal and survives* 
when the body dies. Somnambulic persons seem to 
intimate that the soul of the fleshly body becomes here- 
after the body of the spirit, as if the imago or idolon 
were the soul. 

Dr. Wigan, and indeed physiologists in general, do 
not appear to recognise the old distinction betwixt the 
pneuma or anima and the psyche — the soul and the 
spirit; and indeed the Scriptures occasionally seem to 
use the terms indifferently; but still there are passages 
enough which mark the distinction ; as where St. Paul 
speaks of a " living soul and a quickening spirit," 
1 Cor. xv. 46'; again, 1 Thess. v. 23, "1 pray God 



WRAITHS. 141 

your whole spirit, and soul, and body, <fec. f and also, 
Hebrews iv. 1 2, where he speaks of the sword of God 
"dividing asunder the soul and spirit." In Genesis, 
chap. ii. we are told that " man became a living soul f 
but it is distinctly said, 1 Cor. xii., that the gifts oi 
prophecy, the discerning of spirits, <fcc. &c. belong to 
the spirit. Then, with regard to the possibility of the 
spirit absenting itself from the body, St. Paul says, in 
referring to his own vision, 2 Cor. xii. " I knew a man 
in Christ, about fourteen years ago (whether in the 
body, I cannot tell ; or out of the body, I cannot tell ; 
God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third 
heaven ;" and we are told also that to be " absent from 
the body is to be present with the Lord," and that 
when we are " at home in the body we are absent from 
the 'Lord." We are told also, "the spirit returns to 
God, who gave it ;" but it depends on ourselves whether 
or not our souls shall perish. We must suppose, how- 
ever, that even in the worst cases some remnant of 
this divine spirit remains with the soul as long as the 
latter is not utterly perverted and rendered incapable of 
salvation. 

St. John also says, that when he prophesied, he was 
in the spirit; but it was the " Souls of the Slain" that 
he saw, and that "cried with a loud voice," (fee. <fec. 
Souls here being probably used in the sense of indi- 
viduals i as we say, " So many souls perished by ship- 
wreck," &c. 

In the "Kevue de Paris," 29th July, 1838, it is 
related that a child saw the soul of a woman, who was 
-lying insensible in a magnetic crisis in which death 
nearly ensued, depart out of her; and I find recorded 
in another work that a somnambule who was Drought 
to give advice to a patient, said, " It is too late ; her 
soul is leaving her. I see the vital flame quitting her 
brain." 

From some of the cases I have above related, we are 
led to the conclusion that in certain conditions of the 



142 WRAITHS* 

body, the spirit, in a manner unknown to us, resumes 
a portion of its freedom, and is enabled to exercise 
more or less of its inherent properties. It is somewhat 
released from those inexorable conditions of time and 
space, which bound and limit its powers whilst in close 
eonnexion with matter, and it communes with other 
spirits who are also liberated. How far this liberation 
(if such it be) or re-integration of natural attributes 
maji „ake place in ordinary sleep, we can only conclude 
from examples. In prophetic dreams, and in those 
instances of information apparently received from the 
dead, this condition seems to occur; as also in such 
cases as that of the gentleman mentioned in a former 
chapter, who has several times been conscious on 
awaking that he had been conversing with some one, 
whom he has been subsequently startled to hear had 
died at that period ; and this is a man apparently in 
excellent health, endowed with a vigorous understand- 
ing, and immersed in active business. 

In the story of the American, quoted in a former 
chapter from Jung Stilling, there was one point which 
I forebore to comment on at the moment, but to which 
I must now revert; this is the assertion, that the 
voyager had seen the man and even conversed with 
him, in the coffee-house in London, whence the desired 
intelligence was brought. Now this single case, stand- 
ing alone, would amount to nothing, although Jung 
Stilling, who was one of the most conscientious of men, 
declares himself to have been quite satisfied with the 
authority on winch he relates it ; but, strange to say — 
for undoubtedly the thing is very strange — there are 
numerous similar instances recorded ; and it seems to 
have been believed in all ages of the world, that people 
were sometimes seen, where bodily they were not ; seen 
not by sleepers alone, but by persons in a perfect state of 
vigilance; and that this phenomenon, though more 
frequently occurring at the moment that the individual 
seen is at the point of death, does occasionally occur at 



WKAITHS. 143 

indefinite periods anterior to the catastrophe; and 
sometimes where no such catastrophe is impending. 
In some of these cases, an earnest desire seems to be 
the cause of the phenomenon. It is not very long since 
a very estimable lady, who was dying in the Mediter 
ranean, expressed herself perfectly ready to meet death, 
if she could but once more behold her children, who 
were in England. She soon afterwards fell into a 
comatose state, and the persons surrounding her were 
doubtful whether she had not already breathed hei 
last; at all events they did not expect her to revive. 
She did so, however, and now cheerfully announced 
that, haying seen her children, she was ready to depart. 
During the interval that she lay in this state, her 
family saw her in England, and were thus aware of her 
death before the intelligence reached them. As it is a 
subject, I understand, they are unwilling to speak of, 
I do not know precisely under what circumstances she 
was seen; but this is an exactly analogous case to that 
already recorded of Maria Goffe, of Rochester, who 
when dying, away from home, expressed precisely the 
same feelings. She said she could not die happy till 
she had seen her children. By and by she fell into a 
state of coma, which left them uncertain whether she 
was dead or alive. Her eyes were open and fixed, her 
jaw fallen, and there was no perceptible respiration. 
When she revived, she told her mother, who attended 
her, that she had been home and seen her children; 
which the other said was impossible, since she had 
been lying there in the bed the whole time. 4i Yes," 
replied the dying woman, " but I was there in my 
^leep." A widow woman, called Alexander, who had 
the care of these children, declared herself ready to 
take oath upon the sacrament, that during this period 
she had seen the form of Maria GofFe come out of the 
room where the eldest child slept, and approach the 
bed where she herself lay with the younger beside her. 
The figure had stood there nearly a quarter of an hour, 



144 WRAITHS. 

as far as she could judge ; and she remarked that the 
eyes and the mouth moved, though she heard no sound, 
She declared herself to have been perfectly awake, and 
that as it was the longest night in the year, it was 
quite light. She sat up in bed, and whilst she was 
looking on the figure, the clock on the bridge struck 
two. She then adjured the form in the name of God 
whereupon it moved. She immediately arose and fol- 
lowed it ; but could not tell what had become of it. 
She then became alarmed, and throwing on her clothes, 
went out and walked on the quay, returning to the 
house ever and anon to look at the children. At five 
o'clock she knocked at a neighbour's door, but they 
would not let her in. At six she knocked again, and 
was then admitted, and related to them what she had 
seen, which they of course endeavoured to persuade 
her was a dream or an illusion. She declared herself, 
however, to have been perfectly awake ; and said, that 
if ever she had seen Maria Goffe in her life, she had 
seen her that night. 

The following story has been currently related in 
Rome, and is already in print. I take it from a Ger- 
man work, and I do not know how far its authenticity 
can be established. It is to the effect that two friends 
having agreed to attend confession together, one of them 
went at the appointed time to the Abbate B., and 
made his confession ; after which the priest commenced 
the usual admonition, in the midst of which he sud- 
denly ceased speaking. After waiting a short time, 
the penitent stept forward and perceived him lying in 
the confessional in a state of insensibility. Aid was 
summoned and means used to restore him, which were 
for some time ineffectual ; at length, when he opened 
his eyes, he bade the penitent recite a prayer for his 
friend, who had just expired. This proved to be the 
case on inquiry ; and when the young man, who had 
naturally hastened to his friend's house, expressed a 
Jaope that he had not died without the last offices of 






WRAITHS. 145 

the church, he was told to his amazement, that the Ab- 
bate B. had arrived just as he was in extremis, and had 
remained with him till he died. 

These appearances seenied to have taken place when 
the corporeal condition of the person seen elsewhere 
permits us to conceive the possibility of the spirit's 
having withdrawn from the body ; but the question 
then naturally arises, what is it that was seen ; and I 
confess, that of all the difficulties that surround the 
subject I have undertaken to treat o£ this seems to me 
the greatest ; for we cannot suppose that a spirit can 
be visible to the human eye, and both in the above 
instances and several others I have to narrate, there is 
nothing that can lead us to the conclusion, that the 
persons who saw the wraith or double were in any 
other than a normal state ; the figure, in short, seems 
to have been perceived through their external organs of 
sense. Before I discuss this question, however, any 
further, I will relate some instances of a similar kind, 
only with this difference, that the wraith appearing as 
nearly as could be ascertained at the moment of death, 
it remains uncertain whether it was seen before or after 
the dissolution had taken place. As both in these 
cases above related and those that follow, the material 
body was visible in one place, whilst the wraith was 
visible in another, they appear to be strictly analogous ; 
especially, as in both class of examples, the body itself 
was either dead or in a state that closely resembled death. 

Instances of people being seen at a distance from the 
spot on which they are dying, are so numerous, that 
in this department I have positively an embarras de 
richesses, and find it difficult to make a selection; more 
especially as there is in each case little to relate, the 
whole phenomenon being comprised in the fact of the 
form being observed and the chief variations consisting 
in this, that the seer, or seers, frequently entertain no 
suspicion that what they have seen is any other than 
a form of flesh and blood ; whilst on other occasions the 



M6 WRAITHS. 

assurance that the person is far away, or some pecu- 
liarity connected with the appearance itself, produces 
the immediate conviction that the shape is not corporeal 

Mrs. K., the sister of Provost B., of Aberdeen, was 
fitting one day with her husband, Dr. K., in the parlour 
of the manse, when she suddenly said, " Oh ! there's my 
brother come ! he has just passed the window^," and, 
followed by her husband, she hastened to the door to 
meet the visitor. He was however not there, - He is 
gone round to the back door," said she; and thither 
they went ; but neither was he there, nor had the ser- 
vants seen any thing of him. Dr. K. said she must be 
mistaken ; but she laughed at the idea ; her brother had 
passed the window and looked in; he must have gone 
somewhere, and would doubtless be back directly. But 
he came not ; and the intelligence shortly arrived from 
St. Andrews, that at that precise time, as nearly as they 
could compare circumstances, he had died quite suddenly 
at his own place of residence. I have heard this story 
from connexions of the family, and also from an eminent 
professor of Glasgow, who told me that he had once 
asked Dr. K., whether he believed in these appearances. 
"I cannot choose but believe/' returned Dr. K.. and 
then he accounted for his conviction by narrating the 
above particulars. 

Lord and Lady M. were residing on their estate in 
Ireland. Lord M. had gone out shooting in the morn- 
ing, and was not expected to return till towards dinner 
time. In the course of the afternoon Lady M. and a 
friend were walking on the terrace that forms a pro- 
menade in front of the castle, when she said, " Oh, 
there is M. returning!" whereupon she called to him 
to join them. He, however, took no notice, but walked 
on before them, till they saw him enter the house, 
whither they followed him ; but he was not to be 
found ; and before they had recovered their surprise 
at his sudden disappearance, he was brought home 



WRAITHS. 147 

dead; having been killed by his own gnn. It is a 
curious fact in this case, that whilst the ladies were 
walking behind the figure, on the terrace, Lady M. 
called the attention of her companion to the shooting 
jacket, observing that it was a particularly conveniens 
one, and that she had the credit of having contrived it 
for him herself. 

A person in Edinburgh, busied about her daily 
work, saw a woman enter her house with whom she 
was on such ill terms that she could not but be 
surprised at the visit ; but whilst she was expecting 
an explanation, and under the influence of her resent- 
ment avoiding to look at her, she found she was gone. 
She remained quite unable to account' for the visit, 
and, as she said, u Was wondering what had brought 
her there," when she heard that the woman had ex- 
pired at that precise time. 

Madame O. B. was engaged to marry an officer who 
was with his regiment in India ; and wishing to live 
in privacy till the union took place, she retired to the 
country and boarded with some ladies of her acquaint- 
ance, awaiting his return. She, at length, heard that 
he had obtained an appointment, which, by improving 
his prospects, had removed some difficulties out of the 
way of the marriage, and that he was immediately 
coming home. A short time after the arrival of this 
intelligence this lady, and one of those with whom she 
was residing, were walking over a bridge, when the 
friend said, alluding to an officer she saw on the other 
side of the way, " What an extraordinary expression 
of face !" But without pausing to answer, Madame 
O. B. darted across the road to meet the stranger — but 
he was gone ! Where ? They could not conceive. 
They ran to the toll-keepers at the ends of the bridge 
to inquire if they had observed such a person; but 
they had not. Alarmed and perplexed, for it was 
her intended husband that she had seen, Madamfe G. 



148 WRAITHS. 

B. returned home; and in due time the packet that 
should have brought himself brought the sad tidings oi 
his unexpected death. 

Madame O., B. never recovered the shock, and died 
herself of a broken heart not long afterwards. 

Mr. H., an eminent artist, was walking arm-in-arm 
with a friend, in Edinburgh, when he suddenly left 
him, saying, " Oh, there's my brother !" He had seen 
him with the most entire distinctness, but was con- 
founded by losing sight of him without being able to 
ascertain whither he had vanished. News came, ere 
long, that at that precise period his brother had died. 

Mrs. T., sitting in her drawing-room, saw her 
nephew, then • at Cambridge, pass across the adjoining 
room. She started up to meet him, and, not finding 
him, summoned the servants to ask where he was. 
They, however, had not seen him, and declared he 
could not be there ; whilst she as positively declared he 
was. The young man had died, at Cambridge, quite 
unexpectedly. 

A Scotch minister went to visit a friend, who was 
dangerously ill. After sitting with the invalid for 
some time he left him to take some rest, and went 
below. He had been reading in the library some little 
time, when, on looking up, he saw the sick man stand- 
ing at the door. " God bless me I" he cried, starting 
up, "how can you be so imprudent?" The figure dis- 
appeared; and, hastening upstairs, he found his friend 
had expired. 

Three young men, at Cambridge, had been out 
hunting, and afterwards dined together in the apart- 
ments of one of them. After dinner two of the party, 
fatigued with their morning's exercise, fell asleep, whilst 
the third, a Mr. M., remained awake. Presently the 
door opened, and a gentleman entered and placed 
himself behind the sleeping owner of the rooms, and, 
after standing there a minute, proceeded into the gyp- 
room — a small inner chamber, from which there was 



WRAITHS. 149 

no egress. Mr. M. waited a little while, expecting the 
stranger would come out again ; but, as he did not, he 
awoke his host, saying, " There's somebody gone into 
your room ; I don't know who it can be." 

The young man rose and looked into the gyp-room, 
but there being nobody there he naturally accused 
Mr. M. of dreaming ; but the other assured him he had 
not been asleep. He then described the stranger — an 
elderly man, &c, dressed like a county sqiiire, with 
gaiters on, and so forth. " Why that's like my father," 
said the host, and he immediately made inquiry, think- 
ing it possible the old gentleman had slipt out unob- 
served by Mr. M. He was not, however, to be heard 
of; and the post shortly brought a letter announing 
that he had died at the time he had been seen in his 
son's chamber at Cambridge. 

Mr. C. F. and some young ladies were not long ago 
standing together looking in at a shop window, at 
Brighton, when he suddenly darted across the way 
and they saw him hurrying along the street, apparently 
in pursuit of somebody. After waiting a little while, 
as he did not return, they went home without him; 
and when he came, they of course arraigned him for 
his want of gallantry. 

" I beg your pardon," said he ; " but I saw an. 
acquaintance of mine that owes me some money, and I 
wanted to get hold of him." 

"And did youT inquired the ladies. 

u No," returned he, " I kept sight of him some time ; 
but I suddenly missed him, I can't think how." 

No more was thought of the matter; but by the 
next morning's post, Mr. C. F. received a letter, enclos- 
ing a draft from the father of the young man he had 
seen, saying, that his son had just expired; and that 
one of his last requests had been that he would pay- 
Mr. C. F. the money that he owed him. 

Two young ladies staying at the Queen's Ferry arose 
one morning early to bathe; as they descended the 



150 WRAITHS. 

stairs, they each exclaimed, " There's my imcle !" They 
had seen him standing by the clock. He died at that 
time. 

Very lately, a gentleman living in Edinburgh, whilst 
sitting with his wife, suddenly arose from his seat, and 
advanced towards the door, with his hands extended, 
as if about to welcome a visitor. On his wife's inquir- 
ing what he was about, he answered that he had seen 
so-and-so enter the room. She had seen nobody. A 
day or two afterwards the post brought a letter 
announcing the death of the person seen. 

A regiment, not very long since, stationed at New 
Orleans, had a temporary mess-room erected, at one end 
of which was a door for the officers ; and at the other, 
a door and a space railed off for the messman. One 
day two of the officers were playing at chess, or 
draughts, one sitting with his face towards the centre 
of the room, the other with his back to it. " Bless 
me ! why, surely that is your brother !" exclaimed the 
former to the latter, who looked eagerly round, his 
brother being then, as he believed, in England. By 
this time, the figure having passed the spot where the 
officers were sitting, presented only his back to them. 
" No," replied the second, " that is not my brother's 
regiment; that's the uniform of the Rifle Brigade. By 
heavens ! it is my brother, though," he added, starting 
up, and eagerly pursuing the stranger, who at that 
moment turned his head and looked at him, and then, 
somehow, strangely disappeared amongst the people 
standing at the messman's end of the room. Supposing 
he had gone out that way, the brother pursued him, 
but he was not to be found ; neither had the messman, 
nor anybody there, observed him. The young man 
died at that time in England, having just exchanged 
into the Bine Brigade. 

I could fill pages with, similar instances, not to men- 
tion those recorded in other collections and in history. 
The case of Lord Balcar: * is perhaps worth alluding 



WRAITHS. 151 

to, from its being so perfectly well established. No- 
body has ever disputed the truth of it, only they get 
out of the difficulty by saying that it was a spectral 
illusion ! Lord B. was in confinement in the castle of 
Edinburgh, under suspicion of Jacobitism, when one 
morning, whilst lying in bed, the curtains were drawn 
aside by his friend, Viscount Dundee, who looked upon 
him steadfastly, leaned for some time on the mantel- 
piece, and then walked out of the room. Lord B. not 
supposing that what he saw was a spectre, called to 
Dundee tu come back and speak to him. but he was 
gone; and shortly afterwards the news came that he 
had fallen about that same hour at Killicranky. 

Finally, I have met with three instances of persona 
who are so much the subjects of this phenomenon, that 
they generally see the wraith of any friend that happens 
to die, and frequently also of those who are merely ac- 
quaintances. They see the person as if he were alive> 
and unless they know him positively to be elsewhere, 
they have no suspicion but that it is himself, in the 
flesh, that is before them, till the sudden disappearance 
of the figure brings the conviction. Sometimes, as in 
the case of Mr. 0. F. above alluded to, no suspicion 
arises, till the news of the death arrives, and they men- 
tion, without reserve, that they have met so-and-so, 
but he did not stop to speak, and so forth. 

On other occasions, however, the circumstances of 
the appearance are such, that the seer is instantly 
aware of its nature. In the first place, the time and 
locality may produce the conviction. 

Mrs. J. wakes her husband in the night, and tells 
him she has just seen her father pass through the room 
— she being in the West Indies and her father in Eng- 
land. He died that night. Lord T. being at sea, on 
his way to Calcutta, saw his wife enter his cabin. 

Mrs. Mac..., of Sky, went from Lynedale where she 
resided, to pay a visit in Perthshire. During ner 
absence there was a ball given at L. ; and when it was 



152 WRAITHS. 

over, three young ladies, two of them her daughters, 
assembled in their bedroom to talk over the evening's 
amusement. Suddenly, one of them cried, " O God ! 
my mother." They all saw her pass across the room 
towards a chest of drawers, where she vanished. They 
immediately told their friends what' they had seen; and 
afterwards learned that the lady died that night. 

Lord M. being from home, saw Lady M., whom he 
had left two days before, perfectly well, standing at the 
foot of his bed; aware of the nature of the appearance, 
but wishing to satisfy himself that it was not a mer 
spectral illusion, he called his servant, who slept in the 
dressing-room, and said to him, "John, who's that?" 
" It's my lady !" replied the man. Lady M. had been 
seized with inflammation and died after a few hours 
illness. This circumstance awakened so much interes 
at the time that, I am informed by a member tf tl 
family, George the Third was not satisfied withou 
hearing the particulars both from Lord M. and the 
servant, also. 

But, besides time and locality, there are very fre- 
quently other circumstances accompanying the appear- 
ance, which not only show the form to be spectral, but 
also make known to the seer the nature of the death 
that has taken place. 

A lady, with whose family I am acquainted, had a 
son abroad. One night she was lying in bed, with a 
door open which led into an adjoining room, where 
there was a fire. She had not been to sleep, when she 
saw her son cross this adjoining room and approach the 
fire, over which he leant, as if very cold. She saw that 
he was shivering and dripping wet. She immediately 
exclaimed, " That's my G. !" The figure turned its face 
round, looked at her sadly, and disappeared. That 
same night the young man was drowned. 

Mr. P., the American manager, in one of his voyages 
to England, being in bed, one night, between sleeping 
and waking, was disturbed by somebody coming into 



WRAITHS. 153 

his cabin, dripping with water. He concluded that the 
person had fallen overboard, and asked him why he 
came there to disturb him, when there were plenty of 
other places for him to go to? The man muttered 
something indistinctly, and Mr. P. then perceived that 
it was his own brother. This roused him completely, 
and feeling quite certain that somebody had been there, 
he got out of bed to feel if the carpet was wet on the 
spot where his brother stood. It was not, however; 
and when he questioned his shipmates, the following 
morning, they assured him that nobody had been over- 
board, nor had anybody been in his cabin. Upon this, 
he noted down the date and the particulars of the event, 
and, on his arrival at Liverpool, sent the paper sealed, 
to a friend in London, desiring it might not be opened 
till he wrote again. The Indian post, in due time, 
brought the intelligence that on that night Mr. P.'s 
brother was drowned. 

A similar case to this is that of Captain Kidd, which 
Lord Byron used to say he heard from Captain K. 
himself. He was one night awakened in his hammock 
by feeling something heavy lying upon him. He opened 
his eyes, and saw, or thought he saw, by the indistinct 
light in the cabin, his brother, in uniform, lying across 
the bed. Concluding that this was only an illusion 
arising out of some foregone dream, he closed his eyes 
again to sleep; but again he felt the weight, and therf 
was the form still lying across the bed. He no\* 
stretched out his hand, and felt the uniform, which was 
quite wet. Alarmed, he called out for somebody to 
come to him; and, as one of the officers entered, the 
figure disappeared. He afterwards learnt, that his 
brother was drowned on that night in the Indian Ocean. 

Ben Johnson told Drummond, of Hawthornden, that 
being at Sir Robert Cotton's house, in the country, with 
old Cambden, he saw, in a vision, his eldest son, then a 
child at London, appear to him with a mark of a bloody 
cross on his forehead; at which, amazed, he prayed to God; 



154 WRAITHS. 

and, in tlie morning, mentioned the circumstance to 
Mr. Cambden, who persuaded him it was fancy. In 
the mean time, came letters announcing that the boy 
had died of the plague. The custom of indicating an 
infected house by a red cross, is here suggested; the 
cross, apparently, symbolizing the manner of the death. 

Mr. S. C, a gentleman of fortune, had a son in 
India. One fine calm summer s morning, in the year 
1780, he and his wife were sitting at breakfast, when 
she rose and went to the window; upon which, turning 
his eyes in the same direction, he started up and followed 
her, saying. " My dear, do you see that 1 ?" "Surely," 
she replied, "it is our son. Let us go to him !" As she 
was very much agitated, however, he begged her to sit 
down and recover herself; and when they looked again, 
the figure was gone. The appearance was that of their 
son, precisely as they had last seen him. They took 
note of the hour, and afterwards learnt that he had 
died in India at that period. 

A lady, with whose family 1 am acquainted, was 
sitting with her son, named Andrew, when she suddenly 
exclaimed that she had seen him pass the window in a 
white mantle. As the window was high from the 
ground, and overhung a precipice, no one could have 
passed; else, she said, " Had there been a path, and he 
not beside her afc the moment, she should have thought 
he had walked by on stilts." Three days afterwards, 
Andrew was seized with a fever which he had caught 
from visiting some sick neighbours, and expired after 
a short illness. 

In 1807, when several people were killed in conse- 
quence of a false alarm of fire, at Sadler's Wells, a 
woman named Price, in giving her evidence at the 
inquest, said, that her little girl had gone into the 
kitchen about half -past ten o'clock, and was surprised 
to see her brother there, whom she supposed to be at 
the Theatre. She spoke to him; whereupon, he dis- 
appeared. The child immediately told her mother 



WRAITHS. 155 

who, alarmed, set off to the theatre and found the boy 
dead. 

In the year 1813, a young lady in Berlin, whose 
intended husband was with the army at Dusseldorf. 
heard some one knock at the door of her chamber, and 
her lover entered in a white neglige stained with blood. 
Thinking that this vision proceeded from some disorder 
in herself, she arose and quitted the room to call the 
servant; who not being at hand, she returned, and found 
the figure there still. She now became much alarmed, 
and having mentioned the circumstance to her father, 
inquiries were made of some prisoners that were march- 
ing through the town, and it was ascertained, that the 
young man had been wounded and had been carried to 
the house of Dr. Ehrlick, in Leipsic, with great hopes 
of recovery. It afterwards proved, however, that he 
had died at that period, and that his last thoughts were 
with her. This lady earnestly wished and prayed for 
another such a visit; but she never saw him again. 

In the same year, a woman in Bavaria, who had a 
brother with the army in Russia, was one day at field 
work, on the skirts of a forest, and everything quiet 
around her, when she repeatedly felt herself hit by 
small stones, though on looking round, she could see 
.nobody. At length, supposing it was some jest, she 
threw down her implement and stepped into the wood 
whence they had proceeded, when she saw a headless 
figure, in a soldiers mantle, leaning against a tree. 
Afraid to approach, she summoned some labourers from 
a neighbouring field, who also saw it; but on going up 
to it, it disappeared. The woman declared her con- 
viction that the circumstances indicated her brother's 
death; and it was afterwards ascertained that he had, 
on that day, fallen in a trench. 

Some few years ago a Mrs. H. residing in Limerick, 
had a servant whom she much esteemed, called Nelly 
Hanlon. Nelly w^as a very steady person, who seldom 
oaked for a holiday, and consequently Mrs. H. was the- 



156 WRAITHS. 

less disposed to refuse her, when she requested a day's 
leave of absence for the purpose of attending a fair that 
was to take place a few miles off. The petition was 
therefore favourably heard, but when Mr. H. came 
home and was informed of Kelly's proposed excursion, 
he said she could not be spared, as he had invited some 
people to dinner for that day, and he had nobody he 
could trust with the keys of the cellar except Nelly : 
adding, that it was not likely his business would allow 
hhn to get home time enough to bring up the wine 
himself. 

Unwilling, however, after giving her consent, to dis- 
appoint the girl, Mrs. H. said that she would herself 
undertake the cellar department on the day in question; 
go when the wished- for morning arrived, Nelly departed 
in great spirits, having faithfully promised to return 
that night, if possible, or at the latest, the following 
morning. 

The day passed as usual and nothing was thought 
about Nelly, till the time arrived for fetching up the 
wine, when Mrs. H. proceeded to the cellar stairs with 
the key, followed by a servant carrying a bottle-basket. 
She had, however, scarcely begun to descend when she 
Pitered a loud scream and dropped down in a state of 
it sensibility. She was carried up stairs and laid upon 
tLe bed, whilst, to the amazement of the other servants, 
the girl who accompanied her, said they had seen Nelly 
Hanlon, dripping with water, standing at the bottom of 
the stairs. Mr. H. being sent for, or coming home at 
the moment, the story was repeated to him; whereupon 
he reproved the woman for her folly ; and, proper 
restoratives being applied, Mrs. H. at length began 
to revive. As she opened her eyes, she heaved a 
deep sigh, saying. " Oh, Nelly Hanlon,"' and as soon as 
she was sufficiently recovered to speak, she corroborated 
what the girl had said; she had seen Nelly at the foot 
of the cellar stairs, dripping as if she had just come out 
of the water. Mr. H. used his utmost efforts to 



WRAITHS. 157 

persuade his wife out of what he looked upon to be an 
illusion; but in vain. "Nelly," said he, "wiJl come 
home by and by and laugh at you," whilst she, on the 
contrary, felt sure that Nelly was dead. 

The night came, and the morning came, but there 
was no Nelly. When two or three days had passed, 
inquiries were made; and it was ascertained that she 
had been seen at the fair, and had started to return 
home in the evening; but from that moment all traces 
of her were lost, till her body was ultimately found in 
the river. How she came by her death was never 
known. 

Now, in most of these cases, which I have above 
detailed, the person was seen where his dying thoughts 
might naturally be supposed to have flown, and the 
visit seems to have been made either immediately 
before or immediately after the dissolution of the body; 
in either case we may imagine that the final parting of 
the spirit had taken place, even if the organic life was 
not quite extinct. I have met with some cases in 
which we are not left in any doubt with respect to 
what were the last wishes of the dying person : for 
example, — a lady, with whom I am acquainted, was on 
her way to India; when near the end of her voyage she 
was one night awakened by a rustling in her cabin, and 
a consciousness that there was something hovering about 
her. She sat up, and saw a bluish cloudy form moving 
away; but persuading herself it must be fancy, she 
addressed herself again to sleep; but as soon as she lay 
down, she both heard and felt the same thing: it seemed 
to her as if this cloudy form hung over and enveloped 
her. Overcome with, horror, she screamed. The cloud 
then moved away, assuming distinctly a human shape. 
The people about her naturally persuaded her that she 
had been dreaming; and she wished to think so; but 
when she arrived in India, the first thing she heard 
was that a very particular friend had come down to 
Calcutta to be ready to receive her on her landing, but 



158 WRAITHS. 

that he had been taken ill and died, saying, he only 
wished to live to see his old friend once more. He 
had expired on the night she saw the shadowy form in 
her room. 

A very frightful instance of this kind of phenomenon 
is related by Dr. H. Werner, of Baron Emilius von 0. 
This yonng man had been sent to prosecute his studies 
in Paris; but forming some bad connexions, he became 
dissipated, and neglected them. His father's counsels 
were unheeded, and his letters remained unanswered. 
One day the young baron was sitting alone on a seat, 
in the Bois de Boulogne, and had fallen somewhat into 
a reverie, when, on raising his eyes, he saw his father's 
form above him. Believing it to be a mere spectral 
illusion, he struck at the shadow with his riding- whip, 
upon which it disappeared. The next clay brought him 
a letter, urging his return home instantly, if he wished 
to see his parent alive. He went, but found the old 
man already in his grave. The persons who had been 
about him said, that he had been quite conscious, and 
had a great longing to see his son; he had indeed, ex- 
hibited one symptom of delirium, which was, that after 
expressing this desire, he had suddenly exclaimed, " My 
God ! he is striking at me with his riding-whip !" and 
immediately expired. In this case, the condition of 
the dying man resembles that of a somnambulist in 
which the patient describes what he sees taking place 
at a distance; and the archives of magnetism furnish 
some instances, especially that of Auguste Muller, of 
Karlsruhe, in which, by the force of will, the sleeper 
has not only been able to bring intelligence from a 
distance, but also like the American magician, to make 
himself visible. The faculties of prophecy and clear or 
far-seeing, frequently disclosed by dying persons, is 
fully acknowledged by Dr. Abercrombie, and other 
physiologists. 

Mr. F. saw a female relative, one night, by his bed- 
side. Thinking it was a trick of some one to frighten 



WRAITHS. 159 

him, lie struck at the figure; whereon she said, " What 
have I done? I know I should have told it you 
before." This lady was dying at a distance, earnestly 
desiring to speak to Mr. F. before she departed. 

I will conclude this chapter with the following ex- 
tract from "Loekhart's Life of Scott":— 

" Walter Scott to Daniel Terry: April 30, 1818. (The 
new house ac Abbotsford being then in progress, 
Scott living in an older part, close adjoining.) 

The exposed state of my house has 
led to a mysterious disturbance. The night before last 
we were awakened by a violent noise, like drawing 
heavy boards along the new part of the house. I 
fancied something had ikllen, and thought no more 
about it. This was about two in the morning. Last 
night, at the same witching hour, the very same noise 
occurred. Mrs. S., as you know, is rather timbersome; 
so up I got, with Beardie's broad sword under my arm — ■ 

u Bolt upright, 
And ready to figl.t." 

But nothing was out of order, neither can I discover 
what occasioned the disturbance." 

Mr. Lockhart adds, " On the morning that Mr. 
Terry received the foregoing letter, in London, Mr. 
William Erskine was breakfasting with him, and the 
chief subject of their conversation was the sudden death 
of George Bullock, which had occurred on the same 
night, and as nearly as they could ascertain, at the very 
hour when Scott was roused from his sleep by the 
' mysterious disturbance' here described. This coinci- 
dence, when Scott received Erskine's minute detail of 
what had happened in Tenterdon-street (that is, the 
death of Bullock, who had the charge oi furnishing the 
new rooms at Abbotsfoid,) made a much stronger im- 



*£0 WRAITHS. 



pression on his mind than might be gathered from the 
tone of an ensuing communication." 

It appears that Bullock had been at Abbotsford, and 
made himself a great favourite with old and young 
Scott, a week or two afterwards, wrote thus to Terry 
"Were you not struck with the fantastical coincidence 
of our nocturnal disturbances at Abbotsford, with the 
melancholy event that followed? I protest to you, the 
noise resembled half-a-dozen men hard at work, putting 
up boards and furniture; and nothing can be more 
certain than that there was nobody on the premises at 
the time. With a few additional touches, the story 
would figure in Glanville or Aubrey's collection. In 
the mean time, you may set it down with poor 
Dubissons warnings, as a remarkable coincidence 
<wmmg under your own observation." 



161 



CHAPTER VIII. 

DOPPELGANGERS, OR DOUBLES. 

In the instances detailed in the last chapter the appari- 
tion has shown itself, as nearly as could be discovered 
at the moment of dissolution ; but there are many 
cases in which the wraith is seen at an indefinite period 
before or after the catastrophe. Of these I could 
quote a great number, but as they generally resolve 
themselves into simply seeing a person where they were 
not, and death ensuing very shortly afterwards, a few 
will suffice. 

There is a very remarkable story of this kind, related 
by Macnish, which he calls "a case of hallucination, 
arising without the individual being conscious of any 
physical cause by which it might be occasioned." If 
this case stood alone, strange as it is, I should think so 
too ; but when similar instances abound, as they do, I 
cannot bring myself to dispose of it so easily. The 
story is as follows : — Mr. H. was one day walking along 
the street, apparently in perfect health, when he saw, 
or supposed he saw, his acquaintance, Mr. G. walking 
before liim. He called to him aloud, but he did not 
seem to hear him, and continued walking on. Mr. H. 
then quickened his pace for the purpose of overtaking 
him, but the other increased his also, as if to keep ahead 
of his pursuer, and proceeded at such a rate that Mr. H. 
found it impossible to make up to him. This con- 
. tinued for some time, till, on Mr. C. reaching a gate, h( 
opened it and passed in, slamming it violently in Mr. 
H.'s face. Confounded at such treatment from a friend, 



162 DOPPELG ANGERS. 

the latter instantly opened the gate, and looked down 
the long lane into which it led, where, to his astonish- 
ment, no one was to be seen. Determined to unravel 
the mystery, he then went to Mr. C.'s house, and his 
surprise was great to hear that he was confined to his 
bed, and had been so for several days. A week or two 
afterwards, these gentlemen met at the house of a com- 
mon friend, when Mr. H. related the circumstance, 
jocularly telling Mr. 0. that, as he had seen his wraith, 
he of course could not live long. The person addressed 
laughed heartily, as did the rest of the party ; but in a 
few days Mr. C. was attacked with putrid sore throat 
and died ; and within a short period of his death, Mr. H. 
was also in the grave. 

This is a very striking case : the hastening on and 
the actually opening and shutting the gate, evincing not 
only vrill but power to produce mechanical effects, at a 
time the person was bodily elsewhere. It is true he 
was ill, and it is highly probable was at the moment 
asleep. The showing himself to Mr. H., who was so 
soon to follow him to the grave, is another peculiarity 
which appears frequently to attend these cases, and 
which seems like what was in old English, and is still 
in Scotch, called a tryst — an appointment to meet 
again betwixt those spirits, so soon to be free. Sup- 
posing Mr. C. to have been asleep, he was possibly in 
that state aware of what impended over both. 

There is a still more remarkable case given by Mr. 
Barham, in his reminiscences. I have no other authority 
for it ; but he relates, as a fact, that a respectable young 
woman was awaked one night by hearing somebody hi 
her room, and +ha,t on looking up she saw a young man, 
to whom she was engaged. Extremely offeuded by 
such an intrusion, she bade him instantly depart, if he 
wished her ever to speak to him again. Whereupon, 
he bade her not be frightened ; but said he was come to 
tell her that he was to die that day six weeks, and then 
disappeared. Having ascertained that the young man 



doppelganctEkw. 163 

himself could not possibly have been in her room, she 
was naturally much alarmed, and her evident depression 
leading to some inquiries, she communicated what had 
occurred to the family with whom she lived — I think 
as dairymaid; but I quote from memory. They at- 
tached little importance to what seemed so improbable, 
more especially as the young man continued in perfectly 
good health, and entirely ignorant of this prediction, 
which his mistress had the prudence to conceal from 
him. "When the fatal day arrived, these ladies saw the 
girl looking very cheerful, as they were going for their 
morning's ride, and observed to each other that the 
prophecy did not seem likely to be fulfilled ; but when 
they returned, they saw her running up the avenue 
towards the house, in great agitation, and learned that 
her lover was either dead or dying, I think in conse- 
quence of an accident. 

The only key I can suggest as the explanation of 
such a phenomenon as this is, that the young man, in 
his sleep, was aware of the late that awaited him ; and 
that whilst his body lay in his bed, in a state approach- 
ing to trance or catalepsy, the freed spirit — free as the 
spirits of the actual dead — went forth to tell the tale t$ 
the mistress of his soul. 

Franz von Baader says, in a letter to Dr. Kerner, 
that Eckartshausen, shortly before his death, assured 
him that he possessed the power of making a person V 
double or wraith appear, whilst his body lay elsewhere^ 
in a state of trance or catalepsy. He added that the 
experiment might be dangerous, if care were not taken 
to prevent intercepting the rapport of the etherial form 
with the material one. 

A lady, an entire disbeliever in these spiritual phe- 
nomena, was one day walking in her own garden with, 
her husband, who was indisposed, leaning on her arm, 
when seeing a man with his back towards them, and a 
spade in his hand digging, she exclaimed, " Look there ! 
Who's that?" "Where?" said her companion ; and at 



164 DOPPELGANGERS. 

that moment, the figure leaning on the spade, turned 
round and looked at her, sadly shaking its head ; and 
she saw it was her husband. She avoided an explana- 
tion, by pretending she had made a mistake. Three 
days afterwards the gentleman died ; leaving her en- 
tirely converted to a belief she had previously scoffed at. 

Here again the foreknowledge and evident design, m 
well as the power of manifesting it, is extremely curious. 
More especially, as the antitype of the figure was neither 
in a trance nor asleep, but perfectly conscious, walk- 
ing and talking. If any particular purpose were to be 
gained by the information indicated, the solution might 
be less difficult. One object, it is true, may have been, 
and indeed was attained, namely, the change in the 
opinions of the wife ; and it is impossible to say what 
influence such a conversion may have had on her after 
life. 

It must be admitted that these cases are very per- 
plexing. We might indeed get rid of them by denying 
them, but the instances are too numerous and the phe- 
nomenon has been too well known in all ages to be set 
aside so easily. In the above examples the apparition, 
or wraith, has been in some way connected with the 
death of the person whose visionary likeness is seen; 
and in most of these instances the earnest longing to 
behold those beloved seems to have been the means of 
effecting the object. The mystery of death is to us so 
awful and impenetrable, and we know so little of the 
mode in which the spiritual and the corporeal are united 
and kept together during the continuance of life, or 
what conditions may ensue when this connexion is 
about to be dissolved, that whilst we look with wonder 
upon such phenomena as these above alluded to, we yet 
find very few persons who are disposed to reject them 
as utterly apocryphal. They feel that in that depart- 
ment, already so mysterious, there may exist a greater 
mystery still; and the very terror with which the 
thoughts of present death inspire most minds, deters 



DOPPELGANGERS. 165 

people from treating this class of facts with that scorn- 
ful scepticism with which many approximate ones are 
denied and laughed at. Nevertheless, if we suppose 
the person to have been dead, though it be but an in- 
appreciable instant of time before he appears, the ap- 
pearance comes under the denomination of what is 
commonly called a ghost ; for whether the spirit lias 
been parted from the body one second or fifty years, 
ought to make no difference in our appreciation of the 
fact, nor is the difficulty less in one case than the other. 

I mention this, because I have met with and do meet 
with people constantly who admit this class of facts, 
whilst they declare they cannot believe in ghosts ; the 
instances, they say, of people being seen at a distance 
at the period of their death are too numerous to permit 
of the fact being denied. In granting it, however, they 
seem to me to grant everything. If, as I have said 
above, the person be dead, the form seen is a ghost or 
spectre, whether he has been dead a second or a century ; 
if he be alive the difficulty is certainly not diminished ; 
on the contrary, it appears to me to be considerably 
augmented ; and it is to this perplexing class of facts 
I shall next proceed; namely, those -in which the per- 
son is not only alive, as in some of the cases above re- 
lated, but where the phenomenon seems to occur with- 
out any reference to the death of the subject, present 
or prospective. 

In either case, we are forced to conclude that the 
thing seen is the same; the questions are, what is it 
that we see? and how does it render itself visible ? and 
still more difficult to answer appears the question of 
how it can communicate intelligence, or exert a mechani- 
cal force. As, however, this investigation will be more 
in its place when I have reached that department of 
my subject commonly called ghosts, I will defer it for 
the present, and merely confine myself to that of Dou- 
bles, or Doppelgangers, as the Germans denominate 
the appearance of a person out of his body. 



1 66 DOPPELGANGERS. 

Ill treating of the case of Auguste Muller, a remark 
able somnainbule, who possessed the power oi appearing 
elsewhere, whilst his body lay cold and stiff in his bed, 
Proiessor Kieser, who attended him, says that the phe- 
nomenon, as regards the seer, must be looked upon as 
purely subjective — that is, that there was no outstand- 
ing form of Auguste Muller visible to the sensuous 
organs, but that the magnetic influence of the somnam- 
bule, by the force 01 his will, acted on the imagination 
of the seer, and called up the image which he believed 
he saw. But then, allowing this to be possible, as Dr. 
Werner says, how are we to account for those numerous 
cases in which there is no somnambule concerned in 
the matter, and no especial rapport, that we are aware 
of, established betwixt the parties] And yet these 
latter cases are much the most frequent; for although 
I have met with numerous instances recorded by the 
German physiologists oi what is called far-working on 
the part of tneir &* mnambules, this power ot appearing 
out of the body seems to be a very rare one. Many 
persons will be surprised at these allusions to a kind of 
magnetic phenomena, of which in this country so little, 
is known or believed; but the physiologists and psycho- 
logists ot Germany have been studying this subject for 
the last fifty years, and the volumes filled with their 
theoretical views and records oi cases are numerous be- 
; ond anything the English public has an idea of. 

The only other theory I have met with, which pre- 
tends to explain the mode of this double appearance, is 
that of the spirit leaving the body, as we have supposed 
it to do in cases of dreams and catalepsy ; in which in- 
itaiices, the nerve-spirit, which seems to be the archseus 
or astral spirit of the ancient philosophers, has the 
power of projecting a visible body out of the imponder- 
able matter of the atmosphere. According to this 
theory, this nerve-spirit, which seems to be an embodi- 
ment oi) or rather, a body constructed out of the ner- 



DOPPELGANGERS. 167 

vous fluid, or ether — in short, the spiritual body of St. 
Paul, — is the bond of union betwixt the body and the 
soul, or spirit; and has a plastic force to raise up an 
aerial form. Being the highest organic power, it can- 
not by any other, physical or chemical, be destroyed ; 
and when the body is cast off, it follows the soul; and 
as, during life, it is the means by which the soul acts 
upon the body, and is thus enabled to communicate 
with the external world, so when the spirit is disem- 
bodied, it is through this nerve-spirit, that it can make 
itself visible, and even exercise mechanical powers. 

It is certain that not only somnambules, but sick 
persons, are occasionally sensible of a feeling that seems 
to lend some countenance to this latter theory. 

The girl at Canton, for example, mentioned in a 
former chapter, declared, as do many somnambulic 
patients, that, whilst their bodies are lying stifi and 
cold, they see it, as if out of it ; and in some instances, 
they describe particulars of its appearance, which they 
could not see in the ordinary way. There are also 
numerous cases of sick persons seeing themselves double, 
where no tendency to delirium or spectral illusion had 
been observed. These »re, in this country, always 
placed under the latter category; but I find various 
instances recorded by the German physiologists, where 
this appearance has been seen by others, and even by 
children, at the same time that it was felt by the 
invalid. In one of these cases, I find the sick person 
saying, " I cannot think how I am lying. It seems to 
me that I am divided, and lying in two places at once/'' 
It is remarkable, that a friend of my own, during an 
illness in the autumn of 1845, expressed precisely the 
same feeling; we however saw nothing of this second 
ego; but it must be remembered, that the seeing these 
things, as I have said in a former chapter, probably 
depends on a peculiar faculty or condition of the seer. 
The servant of Elisha was not blind, but yet he could 



168 DOPPELGANGEKS. 

not see what his master saw, till his eyes were opened — 
that is, till he was rendered capable of perceiving 
spiritual objects. 

When Peter was released from prison by the angel 
— and it is not amiss here to remark, that even he 
" wist not that it was true which was done by the 
angel, but thought he saw a vision," that is, he did not 
believe his senses, but supposed himself the victim of a 
spectral illusion — but when he was released, and went 
and knocked at the door of the gate, where many of 
his friends were assembled, they not conceiving it pos- 
sible he could have escaped, said, when the girl who 
had opened the door insisted that he was there, " It is 
his angel." What did they mean by this ? The ex- 
pression is not an angel, but his angel. Now, it is not 
a little remarkable, that in the East, to this day, a 
double, or doppelganger, is called a man's angel, or 
messenger. As we cannot suppose that this term was 
used otherwise than seriously by the disciples that were 
gathered together in Mark's house, for they were in 
trouble about Peter, and when he arrived were en- 
gaged in prayer, we are entitled to believe that they 
alluded to some recognised phenomenon. They knew, 
either that the likeness of a man— -his spiritual self — 
sometimes appeared where bodily he was not, and that 
this imago or idolon was capable of exerting a mechani- 
cal force, or else that other spirits sometimes assumed 
a mortal form, or they would not have supposed it to 
be Peter's angel that had knocked at the gate. 

Dr. Ennemoser, who always leans to the physical, rather 
than the psychical explanation of a phenomenon, says, 
that the faculty of self- seeing, which is analogous to see- 
ing another person's double, is to be considered an illu- 
sion ; but that this imago of another seen at a distance, 
at the moment of death, must be supposed to have an ob- 
jective reality. But if we are capable of thus perceiving 
the imago of another person, I cannot comprehend why 
we may not see our own; unless, indeed, the former was 



. 



IX^FELGANGERS. 1 69 



ver \.% r&f r?i bni when the body of the person seen was 
in a state of insensibility; but this does not always seem 
to be a necessary condition, as will appear by some ex- 
amples I am about to detail. The faculty of perceiving 
the object, Dr. Ennemoser considers analogous to that 
of second sight, and thinks it may be evolved by local 
as well as idiosyncratical conditions. The difficulty 
arising from the fact, that some persons are in the habit 
of seeing the wraiths of their friends and relations, must 
be explained by his hypothesis. The spirit, as soon as 
liberated from the body, is adapted for communion with 
all spirits; embodied or otherwise, but all embodied 
spirits are not prepared for communion with it. 

A Mr. R., a gentleman who has attracted public 
attention by some scientific discoveries, had had a fit of 
illness at Rotterdam. He was in a state of convales- 
cence, but was still so far taking care of himself as to 
spend part of the day in bed, when, as he was lying 
there one morning, the door opened, and there entered, 
in tears, a lady with whom he was intimately ac- 
quainted, but whom at the time he believed to be in 
England. She walked hastily up to the side of his bed, 
wrung her hands, evincing by her gestures extreme 
anguish of mind, and before he could sufficiently re- 
cover his surprise to inquire the cause of her distress 
and sudden appearance, she was gone. She did not 
disappear, but walked out of the room again, and Mr. R. 
immediately summoned the servants of the hotel, for 
the purpose of making inquiries about the English 
lady — when she came, what had happened to her, and 
where she had gone to, on quitting his room ? The 
people declared there was no such person there; he 
insisted there was, but they at length convinced him 
that they, at least, knew nothing about her. When 
his physician visited him, he naturally expressed the 
great perplexity into which he had been thrown by 
this circumstance: and, as the doctor could find no 
symptioms about his patient that could warrant a sus- 



1 70 DOPPELG ANGERS. 

picion of spectral illusion, they made a note of the date 
and hour of the occurrence, and Mr. R. took the 
earliest opportunity of ascertaining if anything had 
happened to the lady in question. Nothing had 
happened to herself, but at that precise period her 
son had expired, and she was actually in the state of 
distress in which Mr. R. beheld her. It would be ex- 
tremely interesting to know whether her thoughts had 
been very intensely directed to Mr. R. at the moment; 
*>ut that is a point which I have not been able to 
jtscertain. At all events, the impelling cause of the 
form projected, be the mode of it what it may, appears 
to have been violent emotion. The following circum- 
stance, which is forwarded to me by the gentleman to 
whom it occurred, appears to have the same origin : — 

" On the evening of the 12th of March, 1792," says 
Mr. H., an artist, and a man of science, " I had been 
reading in the ' Philosophical Transactions,' and retired 
to my room somewhat fatigued, but not inclined to 
sleep. It was a bright moonlight night, and I had ex- 
tinguished my candle, and was sitting on the side of 
the bed, deliberately taking off my clothes, when I was 
amazed to behold the visible appearance of my half- 
uncle, Mr. R. Robertson, standing before me; and,, at 
the same instant, I heard the words, ' Twice wilVbe 
sufficient T The face was so distinct that I actually 
saw the pockpits. His dress seemed to be made of a 
strong twilled sort of sackcloth, and ot the same dingy 
colour. It was more like a woman's dress than a man's 
— resembling a petticoat, the neck-band close to the 
chin, and the garment covering the whole person, so 
that I saw neither hands nor feet. Whilst the figure 
stood there, I twisted my fingers till they cracked, that 
I might he sure I was awake. 

"On the following morning, I inquired if anybody 
had heard lately of Mr, R., and was well laughed at 
when I confessed the origin of my inquiry. 1 confess 
I though he was dead ; but when my grandlather 



DOPPELGANGERS. 171 

heard the story, lie said that the dress I described, 
resembled the straight-jacket Mr. P. had been put in 
formerly, under an attack of insanity. Subsequently, 
we learnt that on the night and at the very hour I had 
seen him, he had attempted suicide, and beei? actually 
put into a straight-jacket. 

c - He afterwards recovered, and went to Egypt with 
Sir Balph Abercrombie. Some people laugh at this 
story, and maintain that it was a delusion of the ima- 
gination; but surely this is blinking the question ! 
Why should my imagination create such an image, 
whilst my mind was entirely engrossed with a mathe- 
matical problem V 

The words " Twice will be sufficient" probably em- 
bodied the thought, uttered or not, of the maniac, under 
the influence of his emotion — two blows or two stabs 
would be sufficient for his purpose. 

Dr. Kerner relates a case of a Dr. John B., who was 
studying medicine in Paris, seeing his mother, one night, 
shortly after he had got into bed, and before he had 
put out his light. She was dressed after a fashion in 
which he had never «een her; but she vanished; and 
thus aware of the nature of the appearance, he became 
much alarmed, and wrote home to inquire after her 
health. The answer he received was, that she was ex- 
tremely unwell, having been under the most intense 
anxiety on his account, from hearing that several me- 
dical students in Paris had been arrested as resur- 
rectionists; and, knowing his passion for anatomical 
investigations, she had apprehended he might be amongst 
the number. The letter concluded with an earnest 
request that he would pay her a visit. He did so, and 
his surprise was so great on meeting her, to perceive 
that she was dressed exactly as he had seen her in his 
room at Paris, that he could not, at first, embrace her, 
and was obliged to explain the cause of his astonish- 
ment and repugnance. 

An analogous case to these is that of Dr. Donna 



172 d'o'ppelgangers 

winch is already mentioned in so many publication 
that I should not allude to it here, but for the purpose 
of showing that these examples belong to a class of facta 
and that it is not to be supposed that similarity argues 
identity, or that one and the same story is reproduced 
with new names and localities. I mention this, because 
when circumstances of this kind are related, I some- 
times hear people say, " Oh, I have heard that story 
before, but it was said to have happened to Mr. So- 
and-so, or at such a place;" the truth being, that these 
things happen in all places, and to a great variety of 
people. 

Dr. Donne was with the embassy, in Paris, where he 
had been but a short time, when his friend Mr. Roberts 
entering the salon, found him in a state of considerable 
agitation. As soon as he was sufficiently recovered to 
speak, he said that his wife had passed twice through 
the room, with a dead child in her arms. An express 
was immediately dispatched to England to inquire for 
the lady, and the intelligence returned was, that, after 
much suffering, she had been delivered of a dead infant. 
The delivery had taken place at the time that her husband 
had seen her in Paris. Nobody has ever disputed Dr. 
Donne's assertion that he saw his wife, but, as usual, 
the case is crammed into the theory of spectral illu- 
sions. They say, Dr. Donne was naturally very anxious 
about his wife's approaching confinement, of which he 
must have been aware; and that his excited imagina- 
tion did all the rest. In the first place, I do not find 
it recorded that he was suffering any particular anxiety on 
the subject; and even if he were, the coincidences in time 
and in the circumstance of the dead child, remain unex- 
plained. Neither are we led to believe that the doctor 
was unwell, or living the kind of life that is apt to breed 
thick-coming fancies. He was attached to the embassy in 
the gay city of Paris; he had just been taking luncheon 
with others of the suite, and had been left alone but a 
abort time, when he was found in the state of amaze- 



AND SELF-SEEING. 173 

nient above described. If such extraordinary cases of 
spectral illusion as this, and many others I am record- 
ing, can suddenly arise in constitutions apparently 
healthy, it is certainly high time that the medical world 
reconsider the subject, and give us some more compre- 
hensible theory of it ; if they are not cases of spectral 
illusion, but are to be explained under that vague and 
abused term Imagination, let us be told something more 
about Imagination — a service which those who consider 
the word sufficient to account for these strange pheno- 
mena, must, of course, be qualified to perform. Ifj 
however, both these hypotheses, — for they are but 
simple hypotheses, unsupported by any proof whatever, 
only being delivered with an air of authority in a 
rationalistic age, they have been allowed to pass un- 
questioned — if, however, they are not found sufficient 
to satisfy a vast number of minds, which I know to be 
the case, I think the inquiry I am instituting cannot be 
wholly useless or unacceptable, let it lead us where it 
may. The truth is all I seek ; and I think there is a 
very important truth to be educed from the further 
investigation of this subject in its various relations — in 
short, a truth of paramount importance to all others; 
one which contains evidence of a fact, in which we are 
more deeply concerned than in any other; and which, 
if well established, brings demonstration to confirm 
intuition and tradition. I am very well aware of all 
the difficulties in the way — difficulties internal and 
external; many inherent to the subject itself; and 
others extraneous, but inseparable from it; and I am 
very far from supposing that my book is to settle the 
question, even with a single mind. All I hope or 
expect is, to show that the question is not disposed of 
yet, either by the rationalists or the physiologists; and 
that it is still an open one; and all I desire is, to arouse 
inquiry and curiosity; and that thus some mind, better 
qualified than mine to follow out the investigation, ma;; 
be incited to undertake it. 



174 DOPPELGANGEKS 

Dr. Kerner mentions the case of a lady, named Dil- 
lenius, who was awakened one night by her son, a child 
of six years of age ; her sister-in-law, who slept in the 
same room, also awakened at the same time, and all 
three saw Madame Dillenius enter the room., attired in 
a black dress, which she had lately bought. The sister 
said, " I see you double ! you are in bed, and yet you 
are walking about the room." They were both ex- 
tremely alarmed, whilst the figure stood between the 
doors, in a melancholy attitude, with the head leaning 
on the hand. The child, who also saw it, but seems 
not to have been terrified, jumped out of bed, and run- 
ning to the figure, put his hand through it as he 
attempted to push it, exclaiming, " Go away, you black 
woman." The form, however, remained as before; and 
the child, becoming alarmed, sprung into bed again. 
Madame Dillenius expected that the appearance fore- 
boded her own death ; but that did not ensue. A 
serious accident immediately afterwards occurred to her 
husband, and she fancied there might be some con- 
nexion betwixt the two events. 

This is one of those cases that, from their extremely 
perplexing nature, have induced some psychologists to 
seek an explanation in the hypothesis, that other spirits 
may for some purpose or under certain conditions, 
assume the form of a person, with a view to giving an 
intimation or impression, which the gulf separating the 
material from the spiritual world renders it difficult to 
convey. As regards such instances as that of Madame 
Dillenius, however, we are at a loss to discover any 
motive — unless, indeed, it be sympathy — for such an 
exertion of power, supposing it to be possessed ; but in 
the famous case of Catherine of Russia, who is said, 
whilst lying in bed, to have been seen by the ladies to 
enter the throne-room, and being informed of the cir- 
cumstance, went herself and saw the figure seated on 
the throne, and bade her guards fire on it, we may con- 
ceive it possible that her £u?r?dian spirit, if such she 



AND SELF-SEEINO. 175 

had, might adopt this mode of warning her to prepare 
for a change, which, after such a life as hers, we are 
entitled to conclude, she was not very fit to encounter. 

There are numerous examples of similar phenomena 
to be met with. Professor Stilling relates that Le heard 
from the son of a Madame M., that his mother, having 
sent her maid up stairs, on an errand, the woman came 
rnrmrng down in a great flight, say rig that her mis- 
tress was sitting above, in her arm-chair, looking pre- 
cisely as she had left her below. The lady went up 
stairs, and saw herself as described by the woman, very 
shortly after which she died. 

Dr. Werner relates, that a jeweller at Ludwigsburg, 
named Ratzel, when in periect health, one evening, on 
turning the corner of a street, met his own form, face 
to face ; the figure seemed as real and life-like as him^ 
self; and he was so close as to look into its very eyes. 
He was seized with terror, and it vanished. He related 
the circumstance to several people, and endeavoured to 
laugh, but, nevertheless, it was evident he was painfully 
impressed with it. Shortly afterwards, as he was pas- 
sing through a forest, he fell in with some wood-cutters, 
who asked him to lend a hand to the ropes with which 
they were pulling down an oak tree. He did so, and 
was killed by its fall. 

Becker, professor of mathematics at Rostock, having 
fallen into argument with some friends, regarding a 
disputed point in theology, on going to his library to 
letch a book which he wished to refer to, saw himself 
sitting at the table in the seat he usually occupied. He 
approached the figure, which appeared to be reading, 
and, looking over its shoulder, he observed that the 
book open before it was a Bible, and that, with one of 
the fingers of the right hand, it pointed to the passage, 
" Make ready thy house, for thou must die." He 
returned to the company, and related what he had seen, 
and, in spite of all their arguments to the contrary, 
remained fully persuaded that his death was at hand. 



175 DOPPELGANGERS 

:ook leave of his friends, and expired on the follow- 
ing day, at six o'clock in the evening. He ha,d already 
attained a considerable age. Those who would not 
believe in the appearance, said he had died of the 
fright ; but, whether he did so or not, the circumstance 
is sufficiently remarkable ; and, if this were a real, out- 
standing apparition, it would go strongly to support the 
hypothesis alluded to above ; whilst, if it were a spectral 
illusion, it is, certainly, an infinitely strange one. 

As I am aware how difficult it is, except where the 
appearance is seen by more persons than one, to distin- 
guish cases of actual self-seeing from those of spectral 
illusion, I do not linger longer in this department, but, 
returning to the analogous subject of Doppelgangers, I 
will relate a few curious instances of this kind of phe- 
nomenon. 

Stilling relates, that a government officer, of the 
name of Triplin, in Weimar, on going to his office to 
fetch a paper of importance, saw his own likeness sit- 
ting there, with the deed before him. Alarmed, he 
returned home, and desired his maid to go there and 
letch the paper she would find on the table. The maid 
saw the same form, and imagined that her master had 
gone by another road, and got there before her ; his 
mind seems to have preceded his body. 

The Landrichter, or Sheriff F., in Frankfort, sent his 
secretary on an errand; presently afterwards, the secre- 
tary re-entered the room, and laid hold of a book. His 
master asked him what had brought him back, where- 
upon the figure vanished, and the book fell to the 
ground ; it was a volume of Linnaeus. In the evening, 
wheal the secretary returned, and was interrogated with 
regard fco his expedition, he said that he had fallen into 
an eager dispute with an acquaintance, as he went 
along, about some botanical question, and had ardently 
wished he had had his Linnaeus with him to refer to. 

Dr. Werner relates, that Professor Happach had an 
elderly maid-servant, who was hi the habit of coming 



AND SELF-SEEING. 177 

every morning to call him, and on entering the room, 
which he generally heard her do, she usually looked at 
a clock which stood under the mirror, One morning 
she entered so softly, that though he saw her he did not 
hear her foot; she went, as was her custom, to the 
clock, and came to his bedside, but suddenly turned 
round and left the room. He called after her, but she 
not answering, he jumped up out of bed and pursued 
her. EU could not see her,- however, till he reached 
her room where he found her fast asleep in bed. Sub- 
sequently the same thing occurred frequently with this 
woman. 

An exactly parallel case was related to me as occurring 
to himself, by a publisher in Edinburgh. His house- 
keeper was m the habit of calling him every morning. 
On one occasion, being perfectly awake, he saw her 
enter, walk o the window, and go out again without 
speaking, Jeing in the habit of fastening his door, he 
supposed he lad omitted to do so; but presently after- 
wards he hea*d her knocking to come in, and he found 
the door was still locked. She assured him she had not 
been there bebre. He was in perfectly good health at 
the time this lappened. 

Only a few nights since, a lady, with whom I am 
intimately acqiainted, was in bed, and had not been to 
sleep, when sta saw one of her daughters, who slept in 
an upper room and who had retired to rest some time 
before, standin; at the foot of her bed. " H — ," she 
said, "what is he matter^ what are you come for?" 
The daughter di not answer, but moved away The 
mother jumped ut of bed, but not seeing her, got in 
again: but the figure was still there. Perfectly satisfied 
it was really her daughter, she spoke to her, asking if 
anything had hopened; but again the figure moved 
silently away, an. again the mother jumped out of bed, 
and actually weir part of the way up stairs; and this 
occurred a third hue. The daughter was during the 
whole of this tim asleep in her bed; and the lady her- 



2 To DOPPELGANGERS 

self is quite in her usual state of health; not robust, but 
not by any means sickly, nor in the slightest degree 
hysterical or nervous; yet, she is perfectly convinced 
that she saw the figure of her daughter on that occa- 
^don, though quite unable to account for the circum- 
stance. Probably the daughter was ar earning of the 
mother. 

Edward Stern, author of some German works, had 
friend; who was frequently seen out of the body, as the 
Germans term it; and the father of that person was so 
much the subject of this phenomenon, that he was often 
observed to enter his house, whilst he was y*t working 
in the fields. His wife used to say to hm, "Why, 
papa, you came home before;" and he would answer, " I 
dare say; I was so anxious to get away eirlier, but it 
was impossible." 

The cook in a convent of nuns, at Etersdorf, was 
frequently seen picking herbs in the garcbn, when she 
was in the kitchen and much in need of thru. 

A Danish physician, whose name Dr. Werner does 
not mention, is said to have been frquently seen 
entering a patient's room, and on being s>oken to, the 
figure would disappear, with a sigh. Thisused to occur 
when he had made an appointment whici he was pre- 
vented keeping, and was rendered uneasyby the failure. 
The hearing of it, however, occasioned him such an 
unpleasant sensation that he requested Inpatients never 
to tell him when it happened. 

A president of the Supreme Court n Ulm, named 
Pfizer, attests the truth of the folloving case: — A 
gentleman, holding an official situatia, had a son at 
Gottingen, who wrote home to his fsther, requesting 
him to send him, without delay, a ceriin book, which 
he required to aid him in preparing , dissertation he 
was engaged in. The father answesd, that he had 
sought but could not find the work in aestion. Shortly 
afterwards, the latter had been takinj a book from his 
shelves, when, on turning round, fe beheld, to his 



AND SELF-SEEING. 179 

amazement, his son just in the act of stretching up his 
hand towards one on a high shelf in another part of the 
room. " Hallo !" he exclaimed; supposing it to be the 
young man himself; but the figure disappeared; and, on 
examining the shelf, the father found there the book 
that was required, which he immediately forwarded to 
to Gottingen ; but before it could arrive there, he re- 
ceived a letter from his son, describing the exact spot 
where it was to be found. 

A case of what is called spectral illusion is mentioned 
by Dr. Paterson, which appears to me to belong to the 
class of phenomena I am treating of. One Sunday 
evening Miss N". was left at home the sole inmate of the 
house, not being permitted to accompany her family to 
church, on account of her delicate state of health. Her 
father was an infirm old man, who seldom went from 
home, and she was not aware whether, on this occasion, 
he had gone out with the rest or not. By and by, 
there came on a severe storm of thunder, lightning, and 
rain, and Miss N". is described as becoming very uneasy 
about her father. Under the influence of this feeling, 
Dr. Paterson says, she went into the back room, where 
he usually sat, and there saw him in his arm chair. 
Not doubting but it was himself, she advanced, and laid 
her hand upon his shoulder, but her hand encountered 
vacancy; and, alarmed, she retired. As she quitted the 
room, however, she looked back, and there still sat the 
figure. Not being a believer in what is called the 
" supernatural," Miss N a resolved to overcome her 
apprehensions, and return into the room, which she did, 
and saw the figure as before. For the space of fully 
half an hour she went in and out of the room in this 
manner, before it disappeared. She did not see it 
vanish, but the fifth time she returned, it was gone; 
Dr. Paterson vouches for the truth of this story, and 
no doubt of its being a mere illusion occurs to him, 
though the lady had neve? before or since, as she 
assured him, been troubled with the malady. It seems 



1 80 DOPPELGANGERS 

to me much more likely that, when the storm caiae on. 
the thoughts of the old man would be intensely drawn 
homewards, he would naturally wish himself in his 
comfortable arm chair, and knowing his young daughter 
to be alone, he would inevitably feel some anxiety about 
her too. There was a mutual projection of their spirits 
towards each other; and the one that was most easily 
freed from its bonds was seen where in the spirit it 
actually was; for, as I have said above, a spirit out of 
the flesh, to whom space is annihilated, must be where 
its thoughts and affections are, for its thoughts and 
affections are itself. 

I observe that Sir David Brewster and others, who 
have written on this subject, and who represent all 
these phenomena as images projected on the retina 
from the brain, dwell much on the fact that they are 
seen alike, whether the eye be closed or open. There 
are, however, two answers to be made to this argu- 
ment; first, that even if it were so, the proof would 
not be decisive; since it is generally with closed eyes 
that somnambulic persons see — whether natural som- 
nambules or magnetic patients ; and, secondly, I find 
in some instances which appear to me to be genuine 
cases of an objective appearance, that where the expe- 
riment has been tried the figure is not seen when the 
eyes are closed. 

The author of a work, entitled " An Inquiry into 
the Nature of Gtiosts," who adopts the illusion theory, 
relates the following story, as one he can vouch for, 
though not permitted to give the names of the par- 
ties : — 

" Miss , at the age of seven years, being in a 

field not far from her father's house, in the parish of 
Kirklinton, in Cumberland, saw what she thought was 
her father in the field, at a time that he was in bed, 
from which he had not been removed for a considerable 
period. There were in the field, also, at the same 
moment, George Little, and John, his fellow-servant, 



AND SELF-SEEING. 181 

One of these cried out, " Go to your father, Miss I" 
She turned round, and the figure had disappeared. On 
returning home, she said, "Where is my father f" The 
mother answered, " In bed, to be sure, child ;" out of 
which he had not been. 

I quote this case because the figure was seen by two 
persons ; I could mention several similar instances, but 
when only seen by one they are, of course, open to 
another explanation. 

Goethe, whose family, by the way, were ghost- 
seers, relates, that as he was once in an uneasy state of 
mind, riding along a foot-path towards Drusenheim, 
he saw, '-not with the eyes of his body, but with 
those of his spirit," himself on horseback coming to- 
wards him, in a dress that he then did not possess. 
It was grey, and trimmed with gold ; the figure dis- 
appeared ; but eight years afterwards he found himself, 
quite accidentally, on that spot, on horseback, and in 
precisely that attire." This seems to have been a case 
of second sight. The story of Byron's being seen in 
London when he was lying in a fever at Patras, is well 
known ; but may possibly have arisen from some extra- 
ordinary personal resemblance, though so firm was the 
conviction of its being his actual self that a bet of a 
hundred guineas was offered on it. 

Some time ago, the " Dublin University Magazine" 
related a case, I know not on what authority, as having 
occurred at Rome, to the effect that a gentleman had, 
one night on going home to his lodging, thrown his 
servant into great amazement, the maL exclaiming, 
" Good Lord, sir ! you came home before." He de- 
clared that he had let his master into the houstv 
attended liim up stairs, and, I think, undressed liinij 
and seen him get into bed. When they went to the 
room they found no clothes ; but the bed appeared 
to have been lain in, and there was a strange mark 
upon the ceiling, as if from the passage of an elec- 
trical fiuid. The only thing t^~; young man could 



] 82 DOPPELGANGERS 

remember wlieieby to account for this extraordinary 
circumstance was, that whilst abroad, and in company, 
he had been overcome with ennui, fallen into a deep 
reverie, and had for a time forgotten that he was not 
at home. 

When I read this story, though I have learnt trom 
experience to be very cautious how I pronounce that 
impossible which I know nothing about, I confess it 
somewhat exceeded my receptive capacity, but I have 
since heard of a similar instance, so well authenticated, 
that my incredulity is shaken. 

Dr. Kerner relates that a canon of a Catholic cathe- 
dral, of somewhat dissipated habits, on coming home 
one evening, saw a light in his bedroom. When the 
maid opened the door she started back with surprise, 
whilst he inquired why she had left a candle burning 
up stairs ; upon which she declared that he had come 
home just before, and gone to his room, and she had 
been wondering at his unusual silence. On ascending 
to his chamber he saw himself sitting in the arm-chair. 
The figure arose, passed him, and went out at the room- 
door. He was extremely alarmed, expecting his death 
was at hand. He, however', lived many years after- 
wards, but the influence on his moral character was 
very beneficial. 

Not long since, a professor, I think of theology, at 
a college at Berlin, addressed his class, saying, that, 
instead of his usual lecture, he should relate to them 
a circumstance which, the preceding evening, had oc- 
curred to himself, believing the effects worJd be no 
less salutary. 

He then told them, that as he was, going home the 
last evening, he had seen his own imago, or double, on 
the other side of the street. He looked away, and tried 
to avoid it, but finding it still accompanied him, he took 
a short cut home, in hopes of getting rid of it, wherein 
he succeeded, till he came opposite his own house, 
wh m he saw it at the door. 



AND SELF-SKEING. 183 

It rang; the maid opened; it entered; she handed it a 
candle, and, as the professor stood in amazement on the 
other side of the street, he saw the light passing the 
windows, as it wound its way up to his own chamber, 
He then crossed over and rang; the servant was natu- 
rally dreadfully alarmed on seeing him, but, without 
waiting to explain, he ascended the stairs. Just as he 
reached his own chamber, he heard a loud crash, and, 
on opening the door, they found no one there, but the 
ceiling had fallen in, and his life was thus saved. The 
servant corroborated this statement to the students; 
and a minister, now attached to one of the Scotch 
churches, was present when the professor told his tale, 
Without admitting the doctrine of protecting spirits, it 
is difficult to account for these latter circumstances. 

A very interesting case of an apparent friendly inter- 
vention occurred to the celebrated Dr. A. T., of Edin- 
burgh. He was sitting up late one night, reading in 
Ms study, when he heard a foot in the passage, and 
knowing the family were, or ought to be, all in bed, he 
rose and looked out to ascertain who it was, but see- 
ing nobody, he sat down again. Presently, the sound 
recurred, and he was sure there was somebody, though 
he could not see him. The foot, however, evidently 
ascended the stairs, and he followed it, till it led him 
to the nursery door, which he opened, and found the 
furniture was on fire ; and thus, but for this kind office 
of his good angel, his children would have been burnt 
in their beds. 

Tile most extraordinary history of this sort, how- 
ever, with which I am acquainted, is the following, the 
facts of which are perfectly authentic : — 

Some seventy or eighty years since, the apprentice, 
or assistant, of a respectable surgeon in Glasgow, was 
known to have had an illicit connexion with a servant 
girl who somewhat suddenly disappeared. No sus- 
picion, however, seems to have been entertained of foul 



184 DOPPELGANGERS 

play. It appears rather to have been supposed that she 
had retired for the purpose of being confined, and, con- 
sequently, no inquiries were made about her. 

Glasgow was, at that period, a very different place 
to what it is at present, in more respects than one; 
and amongst its peculiarities was the extraordinary 
strictness with which the observance of the Sabbath 
was enforced, insomuch that nobody was permitted to 
show themselves in the streets or public walks during 
the hours dedicated to the church services ; and there 
were actually inspectors appointed to see that this regu- 
lation was observed, and to take down the names of 
defaulters. 

At one extremity of the city, there is some open 
ground, of rather considerable extent, on the north side 
of the river, called " The Green,' where people some- 
times resort for air and exercise; and where lovers not 
unfrequently retire to enjoy as much solitude as the 
proximity to so large a town can afford. 

One Sunday morning, the inspectors of public piety 
above alluded to having traversed the city, and extended 
their perquisitions as far as the lower extremity of the 
Green, where it was bounded by a wall, observed a 
young man lying on the grass, whom they immediately 
recognised to be the surgeon's assistant. They, of course, 
inquired why he was not at church, and proceeded to 
register his name in their books, but instead of attempt- 
ing to make any excuse for his offence, he only rose 
from the ground, saying, " I am a miserable man ; look 
in the water !" He then immediately crossed a stile, 
which divided the wall, and led to a path extending 
along the side of the river towards the Rutherglen- 
road. They saw him cross the stile, but, not compre- 
hending the significance of his words, instead of ob- 
serving him further, they naturally directed their atten- 
tion to the water, where they presently percei ved the 
J cdy of a woman. Having with some difficulty dragged 



VND SELF-SEEING. 1 85 

-hore, they immediately proceeded to carry it into 
the town, assisted by several other persons, who by this 
time had joined them. It was now about one o'clock, 
and as they passed through the streets, they were ob- 
structed by the congregation that was issuing from one 
of the principal places of worship; and as they stood 
up for a moment, to let them pass, they saw the sur- 
geon's assistant issue from the church door. As it was 
quite possible for him to have gone round some other 
way, and got there before them, they were not much 
surprised. He did not approach them, but mingled 
with the crowd, whilst they proceeded on their way. 

On examination, the woman proved to be the missing 
servant-girl. She was pregnant, and had evidently 
been murdered with a surgeon's instrument, which was 
found entangled amongst her clothes. Upon this, in 
consequence of his known connexion with her, and his 
implied self-accusation to the inspectors, the young man 
was apprehended, on suspicion of being the guilty party, 
and tried upon the circuit. He was the last person 
seen in her company immediately previous to her dis- 
appearance; and there was altogether such strong pre- 
sumptive evidence against him, as, corroborated by what 
occurred on the Green, would have justified a verdict 
of guilty. But, strange to say, this last most important 
item in the evidence failed, and he established an incon- 
trovertible alibi; it being proved, beyond all possi- 
bility of doubt, that he had been in church from the 
beginning of the service to the end of it. He was 
therefore acquitted; whilst the public were left in the 
greatest perplexity, to account as they could for this 
extraordinary discrepancy. The young man was well 
known to the inspectors, and it was in broad daylight 
that they had met him and placed his name in their 
books. Neither, it must be remembered, were they 
seeking for him, nor thinking of him, nor of the woman, 
bout whom there existed neither curiosity nor suspi- 



186 DOPPLEGANGERS. 

cion. Least of all, would they have sought her where 
she was, but for the hint given to them. 
a| The interest excited at the time was very great ; but 
no natural explanation of the mystery has ever b$t;ft 

suggested. 




Vv7 



CHAPTER IX 

APPARITIONS. 

The number of stories on record, which seem to support 
the views I have suggested in my last chapter, is, I 
fancy, little suspected by people in general; and still 
less is it imagined that similar occurrences are yet fre- 
quently taking place. I had, indeed, myself no idea of 
either one circumstance or the other, till my attention 
being accidentally turned in this direction, I was led 
into inquiries, the result of which has extremely sur- 
prised me. I do not mean to imply that all my ac- 
quaintance are ghost-seers, or that these things happen 
every day; but the amount of what I do mean, is this: 
first, that besides the numerous instances of such phe- 
nomena alluded to in history, winch have been treated 
as fables by those who profess to believe the rest of the 
narratives, though the whole rests upon the same foun- 
dation, i. e., tradition and hear-say; besides these, there 
exists, in one form or another, hundreds and hundreds 
of recorded cases, in all countries, and in all languages, 
exhibiting that degree of similarity which mark them 
as belonging to a class of facts, many of these being of 
a nature which seems to preclude the possibility of 
bringing them under the theory of spectral illusions; 
and, secondly, that I scarcely meet any one man or 
woman, who, if I can induce them to believe I will not 
publish their names, and am not going to laugh at 
them, is not prepared to tell me of some occurrence of 
the sort, as having happened to themselves, their 
family, or th?ir friends. I admit that in many in- 



1 88 APPARITIONS. 

stances they terminate their narration by saying, that 
they think it must have been an illusion, because they 
cannot bring themselves to believe in ghosts; not untre- 
quently adding, that they wish to think so; since to 
think otherwise would make them uncomfortable. I 
confess, however, that this seems to me a very unwise, 
as well as a very unsafe way of treating the matter. 
Believing the appearance to be an illusion, because they 
cannot bring themselves to believe in ghosts, simply 
amounts to saying, "I don't believe, because I don't 
believe;" and is an argument of no effect, except to 
invalidate their capacity for judging the question at all; 
but the second reason for not believing, namely, that 
they do not wish to do so, has not only the same disad- 
vantage, but is liable to much more serious objections; 
iur it is our duty to ascertain the truth in an affair that 
concerns every soul of us so deeply; and to shrink from 
looking at it, lest it should disclose something we do 
not like, is an expedient as childish as it is desperate. 
In reviewing my late novel of " Lilly Dawson," where 
I announce the present work, I observe, that whilst 
some of the reviewers scout the very idea oi anybody's 
believing in ghosts, others, less rash, whilst they admit 
;hat it is a subject we know nothing about, object to 
further investigation, on account of the terrors and un- 
comfortable feelings that will be engendered. Now, 
certainly, if it were a matter in which we had no 
personal concern, and which belonged merely to the 
region of speculative curiosity, everybody would be 
perfectly justified in following their inclinations with 
regard to it; there would be no reason for frightening 
themselves if they do not like it; but since it is 
perfectly certain that the fate of these poor ghosts, be 
it what it may, will be ours some day — perhaps before 
another year or another week has passed over our heads 
— to shut our eyes to the truth, because it may, per- 
chance, occasion us some uncomfortable feelings, is 
surely a strange mixture of contemptible cowardice and 



189 

APPARITIONS. 

daring temerity. If it be true, that by some law of 
' nature, departed souls occasionally revisit the earth, we 
may be quite certain that it was intended we should 
know it, and that the law is to some good end; for no 
law of God can be purposeless or mischievous; and is it 
conceivable that we should say, we will not know it, 
because it is disagreeable to us? Is not this very like 
soyirjg, " Let us eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow 
we die!" and yet refusing to inquire what is to become 
of us when we do die] refusing to avail ourselves of 
that demonstrative proof, which God has mercifully 
placed within our reach? And with all this obstinacy, 
people do not get rid of the apprehension; they go on 
struggling against it and keeping it down by argument 
and reason, but there are very few persons indeed, men 
or women, who, vrhen placed in a situation calculated 
to suggest the idea, do not feel the intuitive conviction 
Stirring within them. In the ordinary circumstances 
of life, nobody suffers from this terror; in the extraor- 
dinary ones, I find the professed disbelievers not much 
better off thau the believers. Not long ago, I heard a 
lady expressing the great alarm she should have felt, 
had she been exposed to spend a whole night on Ben 
Lomond, as Margaret Fuller, the American authoress, 
iid lately; " for," said she, " though I don't believe in 
ghosts, I should have been dreadfully afraid of seeing 
one, then!" 

Moreover, though I do not suppose that man, in his 
normal state, could ever encounter an incorporeal spirit 
without considerable awe, I am inclined to think that 
khe extreme terror the idea inspires arises from bad 
Jbraining. The ignorant frighten children with ghosts, 
and the better educated assure them there is no such 
thing. Our understanding may believe the latter, but 
3ur instincts believe the former; so that, out of this 
education, we retain the terror, and just believe enough 
bo make it very troublesome whenever we are placed in 
JU'cumstances that awaken it. JSlow, perhaps, if the 



190 



APPARITIONS. 



thnig were differently managed, the residt might be 
different. Suppose the subject were duly investigated 
and it were ascertained that the views I and many 
others are disposed to entertain with regard to it are 
correct; and suppose, then, children were calmly told 
that it is not impossible, but that on some occasion they 
may see a departed friend again; that the laws of 
nature established by an all-wise Providence admit of 
the dead sometimes revisiting the earth, doubtless for 
the benevolent purpose of keeping alive in us our faith 
in a future state; that death is merely a transition to 
another life, which it depends on ourselves to make happy 
or otherwise; and that, whilst those spirits which appear 
bright and blessed may well be objects of our envy the 
oihers should excite only our intense compassion I 
am persuaded that a child so educated would feel no 
terror at the sight of an apparition, more especially as 
there very rarely seems to be anything terrific in the 
aspect of these forms; they generally come in their 
habits as they lived," and appear so much like the 
living person in the flesh, that where they are not 
known to be already dead, they are frequently mistaken 
for them. There are exceptions to this rule, but it is 
very rare that the forms in themselves exhibit anything 
to create alarm. J ° 

As a proof that a child would not naturally be 
terrified at the sight of an apparition, I will adduce the 
following mstance, the authenticity of which I can 
vouch for: — 

at Jamaica, for the purpose of visiting her friends k 
England, leaving her husband behind & her qata til ' 
It was availing packet, and they had been some time 
at sea when, one evening, whilst the child was kneeling 
before her, saying his prayers, previously to going tf 

spot m G I t S «t ^^ "«"* l0 a P-t-ul- 
£rr A l m ' Mamma > P a P^" '-Nonsense, my 
dearl the mother answered; "you know your papa £ 



APPARITIONS. 191 

not here P' " He is, indeed, mamma," returned the 
child; " he is looking at us now I" Nor could she 
convince him to the contrary. When she went on 
i deck, she mentioned the circumstance to the captain, 
who thought it so strange, that he said he would note 
down the date of the occurrence. The lady begged him 
i not to do so, saying, that it was attaching a significance 
i to it which would make her miserable; he did it, how- 
ever, and shortly after her arrival in England, she 
learnt that her husband had died exactly at that period. 
I have met with other instances in which children 
have seen apparitions without exhibiting any alarm; 
and in the case of Fredericka HaufFe, the infant in her 
arm? was frequently observed to point smilingly to 
those which she herself said she saw. In the above 
related case, we find a valuable example of an appari- 
tion which we cannot believe to have been a mere sub- 
jective phenomenon, though seen by one person and 
not by another. The receptivity of the child may have 
been greater, or the rapport betwixt it and its father 
stronger, but this occurrence inevitably leads us to 
suggest, how oftea our departed friends may be near 
us, and we not see them ! 

A Mr. B., with whom I am acquainted, informed me 
that some years ago he lost two children. There was 
an interval of two years between their deaths; and 
about as long a period had elapsed since the decease of 
the second, when the circumstance I am about to 
relate took place. It may be conceived that at that 
distance of time, however vivid the impression had been 
at first, it had considerably faded from the mind of a 
man engaged in business; and he assures me that on the 
night this event occurred, he was not thinking of the 
children at all; he was, moreover, perfectly well, and 
had neither eaten nor drank anything unusual, nor 
abstained from eating or drinking anything to which 
he was accustomed. He was, therefore, in his normal 
state; when shortly after he had lain down in bed, and 



192 APPARITIONS. 

before lie had fallen asleep, he heard the voice ol one or 
the children say, " Papa ! Papa !" 

"Do you hear that?" he said to his wife, who iaj 
beside him; "I hear Archy calling me, as plain as ever 1 
heard him in my life !" 

u Nonsense !" returned the lady; " you are fancying it.' 
But presently he again heard "Papa! Papa!" and 
now both voices spoke. Upon which, exclaiming, " J 
can stand this no longer!" he started up, and drawing 
back the curtains, saw both children in their night- 
dresses, standing near the bed. He immediately jumped 
out; whereupon they retreated slowly, and with their 
faces towards him, to the window, where they dis- 
appeared. He says, that the circumstance made a great 
impression upon him at the time; and, indeed, that it 
was one that could never be effaced; but he did nor 
know what to think of it, not belie vhig in ghosts, and 
therefore concluded it must have been some extra- 
ordinary spectral illusion; especially as his wife heard 
nothing. It may have been so; but that circumstance 
by nO means proves it. 

From ^dttese varying degrees of« susceptibility, or 
affinity, ynere seems to arise another consequence, 
namely, that more than one person may see the same 
object, and yet see it differently, and I mention this 
particularly, because it is one of the objections that un- 
reflecting persons make to phenomena of this kind, 
second sight especially. In the remarkable instance 
which is recorded to have occurred at Ripley, in the 
year 1812, to which I shall allude more particularly in 
a future chapter, much stress was laid on the fact, that 
the first seer said, "Look at those beasts !" whilst the 
second answered, they were " not beasts, but men." In 
a former chapter. I mentioned the case of a lady, on 
board a ship, seeing and feeling a sort of blue cloud 
hanging over her, which afterwards, as it retired, as- 
sumed a human form, though still appearing a vapoury 
mfosta&ce. Now. possibly, had her receptivity, or the 



APPARITIONS. 193 

rapport, been greater, she might hi, *-e seen the distinct 
image of her dying friend. I have met with several 
instances of these clondy figures being seen, as if the 
spirit Lad built itself up a form of atmospheric air; and 
it is remarkable, that when other persons perceived the 
•apparitions that frequented the Seeress of Prevorst, 
some saw those as cloudy forms, which she saw distinctly 
attired in the costume they wore when alive; and thus, 
on some occasions, apparitions are represented as being 
transparent, whilst on others they have not been dis- 
tinguishable from the real corporeal body. All these 
discrepancies, and others, to be hereafter alluded to, are 
doubtless only absurd to our ignorance: they are the 
results of physical laws, as absolute, though not so 
easily ascertained, as those by which the most ordinary 
phenomena around us are found explicable. 

With respect to these cloudy forms, I have met with 
four instances lately; two occurring to ladies, and two 
to gentlemen ; the one a minister, and the other a 
man engaged in business; and although I am quite aware 
that these cases are not easily to be distinguished from 
those of spectral illusion, yet I do not think them so 
myself; and as they occurred to persons in their normal 
state of health, who never before or since experienced 
anything of the kind, and who could find no tiling in 
their own circumstances to account for its happening 
then, I shall mention them. In the instances of the 
gentlemen and one of the ladies, they were suddenly 
awakened, they could not tell by what, and perceived 
bending over them a cloudy form, which immediately 
retreated slowly to the other end of the room, and dis- 
appeared. In the fourth case, which occurred to an 
intimate friend of my own, she had not been to sleep; 
but having been the last person up in the house, had 
just stepped into the bed, where her sistei had already 
been some time asleep. She was perfectly awake, when 
her attention was attracted by hearing the clink of glass, 
and on looking up she saw a figure standing on the 



194 APPARITIONS. 

hearth, which was exactly opposite her side of the bed, 
and as there was water and a tumbler there, she con- 
cluded that her sister had stepped out at the bottom, 
unperceived by her, and was drinking. Whilst she was 
carelessly observing the figure, it moved towards the 
bed, and laid a heavy hand upon her, pressing her arm 
in a manner that gave her pain. " Oh, Maria, don't I" 
she exclaimed; but as the form retreated, and she lost 
sight of it, a strange feeling crept over her, and she 
stretched out her hand to ascertain if her sister was 
beside her. She was, and asleep; but this movement 
awoke her, and she found the other now in considerable 
agitation. She of course tried to persuade her that it was 
a dream or nightmare, as did the family the next day; 
but she was quite clear in her mind at the time, as she 
then assured me, that it was neither the one nor the 
other; though now, at the distance of a year from the 
occurrence, she is very desirous of putting that con- 
struction upon it. As somebody will be ready to 
suggest that this was a freak played by one of the 
family, I can only answer that that is an explanation 
that no one who is acquainted with all the circumstances 
could admit; added to which, the figure did not dis- 
appear in the direction of the door, but in quite an 
opposite one. 

A very singular thing happened to the accomplished 
authoress of " Letters from the Baltic," on which my 
readers may put what interpretation they please ; but I 
give it here as a pendent to the last story. The night 
before she left Petersburgh she passed in the house of 
friend. The room appropriated to her use was a large 
dining-room, in which a temporary bed was placed, and 
a folding screen was so arranged as to give an air of 
comfort to the nook where the bed stood. She went 
to bed and to sleep, and no one who knows her can 
suspect her of seeing spectral illusions, or being in- 
capable of distinguishing her own condition when she 
«aw anything whatever. As she was to commence her 



APPARITIONS. 195 

journey on* the following day, she had given orders to 
be called at an early hour, and accordingly she found 
herself awakened towards morning by an old woman in a 
complete Russian costume, who looked at her, nodding 
and smiling, and intimating, as she supposed, that it was 
time to rise. Feeling however very sleepy, and very 
unwilling to do so, she took her watch from behind 
her pillow, and looking at it perceived th&t it "vas only 
four o'clock. As, from the costume of the old woman, 
she knew her to be a Russian, and therefore not likely 
to understand any language she could speak, she shook 
her head, and pointed to the watch, giving her to un- 
derstand that it was too early. The woman looked at 
her and nodded, and then retreated, whilst the traveller 
lay down again and soon fell asleep. By and by she 
was awakened by a knock at the door, and the voice of 
the maid whom she had desired to call her. She bade 
her come in, but the door being locked on the inside, 
she had to get out of bed to admit her. It now 
occurred to her to wonder how the old woman had 
entered, but, taking it for granted there was some other 
mode of ingress, she did not trouble herself about it, 
but dressed, and descended to breakfast Of course, 
the inquiry usually addressed to a stranger was made — 
they hoped she had slept well ! " Perfectly," she said, 
" only that one of their good people had been somewhat 
over-anxious to get her up in the morning ;" and she 
then mentioned the old woman's visit, but to her sur- 
prise, they declared they had no such person in the 
family " It must have been some old nurse, or laun- 
dress, or somebody of that sort," she suggested. " Im- 
possible ! " they answered ; " you must have dreamt the 
whole thing ; we have no old woman in the house ; no- 
body wearing that costume ; and nobody could have got 
m, since the door must have been fastened long after 
that !" And these assertions the servants fully con- 
firmed ; added to which, I should observe, the house, 
like foreign houses in general, consisted of a flat or 



196 APPARITIONS. 

floor, shut in by a door, which separated it entirely 
tfrom the rest of the building, and, being high up from 
the street, nobody could even have gained access by a 
window. The lady now beginning to be somewhat 
puzzled, inquired if there were any second entrance 
into the room ; but, to her surprise, she heard there was 
not, and she then mentioned that she had locked the 
door on going to bed, and had found it locked in the morn- 
ing. The thing has ever remained utterly inexplicable, 
and the family, who were much more amazed by it than 
she was, would willingly believe it to have been a 
dream ; but whatever the interpretation of it may be, 
die feels quite certain that that is not the true one. 

I make no comments on the above case, though a 
very inexplicable one ; and I scarcely know whether to 
mention any of those well-established tales, which ap- 
pear certainly to be as satisfactorily attested as any cir- 
cumstance which is usually taken simply on report, I 
allude particularly to the stories of Mrs. Bloomberg, 
General Wynyarcl, Lord Tyrone and Lady Beresford; 
the case which took place at Havant, in Hampshire, 
and which is related in a letter from Mr. Caswell, the 
mathematician, to Dr. Bentley ; that which occurred in 
Cornwall, as narrated by the Kev. Mr. Buddie, one of 
the prebendaries of Exeter, whose assistance and advice 
was asked, and who himself had two interviews with 
the spirit ; and many others, which are already published 
in different works, especially in a little book entitled 
" Accredited G-host Stories." I may however mention.; 
that with respect to those of Lady BerSford and 
General Wynyard, the families of the parties have 
always maintained their entire belief in the circum- 
stances ; as do the family of Lady Betty Cfabb, who 
took the ribbon from Lady Beresford's arm. lifter she 
was dead ; she having always worn it sine ter- 

vicw with the apparition, in order to conceal the mark 
he had left by touching her. 

There have been many attempts to explain away the 



APPARITIONS. 197 

tory of Lord Littletons warning, although the evidence 
for it certainly satisfied the family, as we learn from 
Dr. Johnson, who said, in regard to it, that it was the 
most extraordinary thing that had happened in his day, 
and that he heard it from the lips of Lord Westcote, 
the uncle of Lord Littleton. 

There is a sequel however to this story, which is 
extremely well authenticated, though much less gene- 
rally known. It appears that Mr. Miles Peter Andrews, 
the intimate friend of Lord Littleton, was at his house 
at Dartford, when Lord L. died at Pitt-place, Epsom, 
thirty miles off. Mr. Andrews's house was full of com- 
pany, and he expected Lord Littleton, whom he had 
left in his usual state of health, to join him the next 
day, which was Sunday. Mr. Andrews himself feeling 
rather indisposed on the Saturday evening, retired early 
to bed, and requested Mrs. Pigou, one of his guests, to 
do the honours of his supper-table. He admitted, for 
he is himself the authority for the story, that he fell 
into a feverish sleep on going to bed. but was awakened 
between eleven and twelve by somebody opening hi& 
curtains, which proved to be Lord Littleton, in a night- 
gown and cap, which Mr Andrews recognised. Lord 
L. spoke, saying that he was come to tell him all was 
over. It appears that Lord Littleton was fond of prao 
tical joking, and as Mr. A. entertained no doubt what* 
ever of his visitor being Lord L. himself, in the body, 
he supposed that this was one of his tricks ; and, 
stretching his arm out of bed, he took hold of his slip 
pers. the nearest thing he could get at, and threw them 
at him, whereupon the figure retreated to a dressing- 
room, which had no ingress nor egress, except through 
the bed-chamber. Upon this, Mr. Andrews jumped 
out ot bed to follow him, intending to chastise hini fur- 
ther, but he could find nobody in either of the rooms, 
although the door was locked on the inside; so he rang 
his bell, and inquired who had seen Lord Littleton. 
Nobody had seen him ; but, though how he had got in 



198 APPARITIONS. 

or out of the room remained an enigma, Mr. Andrews 
asserted that he was certainly there ; and, angry at the 
supposed trick, he ordered that they should give him 
no bed, but let him go and sleep at the inn. Lord 
Littleton, however, appeared no more; and Mr. An- 
drews went to sleep, not entertaining the slightest sus- 
picion that he ha£ seen an apparition. It happened 
that on the following morning, Mrs. Pigou had occasion 
to go at an early hour to London, and great was her 
astonishment to learn that Lord Littleton had died on 
the preceding night. She immediately despatched an 
express to Dartford with the news, upon the receipt 
of which, Mr. Andrews, then quite well, and remem- 
bering perfectly all that had happened, swooned away. 
He could not understand it, but it had a most serious 
effect upon him ; and, to use his own expression, he 
was not his own man again for three years. There 
are various authorities for this story, the correctness 
of which is vouched for by some members of Mrs. 
Pigou's family, with whom I am acquainted, who have 
frequently heard the circumstances detailed by herself, 
and who assure me it was always believed by the 
family. I really, therefore, do not see what grounds 
we have for doubting either of these facts. Lord 
Westcote, on whose word Dr Johnson founded his 
belief of Lord Littleton's warning, was a man of strong 
sense; and that the story was not looked upon lightly 
by the family, is proved by the circumstance that the 
dowager Lady Littleton had a picture, which was seen 
by Sir Nathaniel Wraxhall in her house in Portugal- 
street; as mentioned in his memoirs, wherein the event 
was commemorated. His lordship is in bed, the dove 
appears at the window, and a female figure stands at 
the foot of the couch, annoimcing to the unhappy pro- 
fligate his approaching dissolution. That he mentioned 
the warning to his valet, and some other persons, and 
that he talked of jockeying the ghost by surviving the 
time named, is certain; as, also, that he died with his 



APPARITIONS. 199 

watch in his hand, precisely at the appointed period. 
Mr. Andrews says, that he was subject to fits of stran- 
gulation, from a swelling in the throat, which migk& 
have killed him at any moment ; but his decease hav- 
ing proceeds from a natural and obvious cause, does 
not interfere one way or the other with the validity of 
the prediction, which simply foretold his death at a 
particular period, not that there was to be anything 
preternatural in the manner of it. 

As I find so many people willing to believe in 
wraiths, who cannot believe in ghosts — that is, they 
are overpowered by the numerous examples, and the 
weight of evidence for the first — it would be very desir- 
able if we could ascertain whether these wraiths are 
seen before the death occurs, or after it; but, though 
the day is recorded, and seems always to be the one 
on which the death took place, and the hour about the 
same, minutes are not sufficiently observed to enable 
ns to answer that question. It would be an interest- 
ing one, because the argument advanced by those who 
believe that the dead never are seen, is, that it is the 
strong will and desire of the expiring person which 
enable him so to act on the nervous system of his 
distant friend, that the imagination of the latter pro- 
jects the form, and sees it as if objectively. By ima- 
gination I do not simply mean to convey the common 
notion implied by that much abused word, which is 
only fancy, but the constructive imagination.; which is 
a much higher function, and which, inasmuch as man 
is made in the likeness of God, bears a distant rela- 
tion to that sublime power by which the Creator pro- 
jects, creates, and upholds his universe; whilst the far- 
working of the departing spirit seems to consist in the 
strong will to do, reinforced by the strong faith that 
the thing can be done. We have rarely the strong 
will, and still more rarely the strong faith, without 
which the will remains ineffective. In the following 
case, which is perfectly authentic, the apparition of 



200 APPARITIONS. 

Major R. was seen several hours after his death had 
occurred. 

In the year 1785, some cadets were ordered to pro- 
ceed from Madras to join their regiments up the 
country. A considerable part of the journey was to 
be made in a barge, and they were under the conduct 
of a senior officer, Major R. In order to relieve the 
monotony of the voyage, this gentleman proposed one 
day that they should make a shooting excursion inland, 
and walk round to meet the boat at a point agreed on, 
which, owing to the windings of the river, it wou]d 
not reach till evening. They accordingly took their 
guns, and as they had to cross a swamp, Major R, 
who was well acquainted with the country, put on a 
heavy pair of top-boots, which, together with an odd 
limp he had in his gait, rendered him distinguishable 
from the rest of the party at a considerable distance. 
When they reached the jungle, they found there was 
a wide ditch to leap, which all succeeded in doing 
except the Major, who being less young and active, 
jumped short of the requisite distance ; and although 
he scrambled up unhurt he found his gun so crammed 
full of wet sand that it would be useless till thoroughly 
cleansed. He, therefore, bade them walk on, saying 
he would follow ; and, taking off his hat, he sat down 
in the shade, where they left him. When they had 
been beating about for game for some time, they begar 
to wonder the Major did not come on, and they shouted 
to let him know whereabouts they were ; but there 
was no answer, and hour after hour passed without his 
appearance, till at length they began to feel somewhat 
uneasy. Thus the day wore away, and they found 
themselves approaching the rendezvous; the boat was 
in sight, and they were walking down to it, wondering 
how tinife friend could have missed them, when sud- 
denly, to iheir great joy, they saw him before them, 
making towards the barge. He was without his hat or 
gun, limping hastily along, in his top-boots, and did 



APPARITIONS. 201 

not appear to observe them. They shouted after hini t 
but as he did not look round, they began to run, 
in order to overtake hini; and, indeed, fast as he 
went, they did gain considerably upon him. Still he 
reached the boat first, crossing the plank which the 
boatmen had placed ready for the gentlemen they saw 
approaching. He ran down the companion stairs, and 
they after liim; but inexpressible was their surprise 
when they could not find him below. They ascended 
again* and inquired of the boatmen what had become of 
him ; but they declared he had not come on board, and 
that nobody had crossed the plank till the young men 
themselves had done so. 

Confounded and amazed at what appeared so inex- 
plicable, and doubly anxious about their friend, they 
immediately resolved to retrace their . steps in search 
of him ; and, accompanied by some Indians who knew 
the jungle, they made their way back to the spot where 
they had left him. From thence some footmarks enabled 
them to trace him, till, at a very short distance from 
the ditch, they found his hat and his gun. Just then 
the Indians called out to them to beware, for that there 
was a sunk well thereabouts, into which they might 
fall. An apprehension naturally seized them that this 
might have been the fate of their friend; and on 
examining its edge, they saw a mark as of a heel 
slipping up ; upon this, one of the Indians consented 
to go down, having a rope with which they had pro- 
vided themselves tied round his waist, for, aware of 
the existence of the wells, the natives suspected what 
had actually occurred, namely, that the unfortunate 
gentleman had slipped into one of these traps, which, 
being overgrown with brambles, were not discernible 
by the eye. With the assistance of the Indian, the 
. body was brought up and carried back to the boat, 
amidst the dr-ep regrets of the party, with whom he 
hixd been a great favourite. They proceeded with it to 
the n*)xt st^ttuji, where an inquiry was instituted as to 



202 APPARITIONS, 

the manner of his death, but of course there was nothing 
more to be elicited. 

I give this story as related by one of the parties 
present, and there is no doubt of its perfect authen- 
ticity. He says, he can in no way account for the 
mystery — he can only relate the fact ; and not one, but 
the whole jive cadets, saw him as distinctly as they saw 
each other. It was evident, from the spot where the 
body was found, which was not many hundred yards 
from the ditch, that the accident must have occurred 
very shortly after they left him. When the young 
men reached the boat, Major E. must have been, for 
some seven or eight hours, a denizen of the other world, 
yet he kept the rendezvous ! 

There was a similar occurrence in Devonshire, some 
years back, which happened to the well-known Dr. 
Hawker, who, one night, in the street, observed an old 
woman pass him, to whom he was in the habit of giving 
a weekly charity. Immediately after she had passed, 
he felt somebody pull his coat, and, on looking round, 
saw it was she, whereupon he put his hand in his pocket 
to seek for a sixpence, but, on turning to give it to her, 
she was gone. He thought nothing about it, but when 
he got home, he inquired if she had had her money that 
week, when, to his amazement, he heard she was dead, 
Out his family had forgotten to mention the circum- 
stance. I have met with two curious cases occurring 
in Edinburgh, of late years ; in one, a young man and 
his sister were in their kitchen, warming themselves 
over the fire, before they retired to bed, when, on raising 
their eyes, they both saw a female figure dressed in 
white, standing in the doorway, and looking at them; 
she was leaning against one of the door-posts. Miss E., 
the young lady, screamed, whereupon the figure advanced, 
crossed the kitchen towards a closet, and disappeared. 
There was no egress at the closet; and, as they lived in 
a flat and the door was closed for the night, a stranger 
could mother have entered the house nor got out ot it. 



APPARITIONS. 203 

In the other instance, there were two houses on on© 
flat, the doors opposite each other. In one of the 
houses there resided a person with her two daughters, 
grown-up women; in the other lived a shoemaker and his 
wife. The latter died, and it was said her husband had 
ill-treated her, and worried her out of the world. He 
was a drunken, dissipated man, and used to be out till a 
late hour most nights, whilst this poor woman sat up 
for him; and, when she heard a voice on the stairs, or 
the bell of the street door, she used often to come out 
*nd look over to see if it were her husband returned. 
One night, when she had been dead some weeks, the 
two young women had rung the bell and were ascending 
the stairs to their own door, when, to their amazement, 
they both saw her standing at the top, looking over as 
she used to do in her life-time. At the same moment, 
their mother opened the door and saw the figure also; 
the girls rushed past, overcome with terror, and one., 
if not both, fainted, as soon as they got into the house. 
The youngest fell on her face in the passage. 

Another case, which occurred in this town, I men- 
tion, although I know it is liable to be called a spectral 
illusion, because it bears a remarkable similarity to one 
which took place in America. A respectable woman 
lost her father, for whom she had a great affection ; she 
was of a serious turn, and much attached to the tenets 
of her church, in which particulars she thought her 
father had been deficient. She was therefore very 
unhappy about him, fearing that he had not died in a 
proper state of mind. A considerable time had elapsed 
since his death, but her distrust of his condition was 
still causing her uneasiness, when, one day, whilst she 
was sitting at her work, she felt something touch her 
shoulder, and on looking round she perceived her father, 
who bade her cease to grieve about him, as he was not 
unhappy. From that moment, she became perfectly 
resigned and cheerful. The American case — I have 
omitted to write down the name of the place, and 



204 APPARITIONS. 

forget it — was that of a mother and son. She was 
also a highly respectable person, and was described to me 
as perfectly trustworthy, by one who knew her. She was 
a widow, and had one son. to whom she was extremely 
attached. He however disappeared, one day, and she 
never could learn what had become of him; she always 
said, that if she did but know his fate, she should be 
happier. At length, when he had been dead a con- 
siderable time, her attention was, one day, whilst read- 
ing, attracted by a slight noise, which induced her to 
look round ; and she saw her son, dripping with water, 
and with a sad expression of countenance. The features 
however presently relaxed, and they assumed a more 
pleasing aspect before he disappeared. From that time 
she ceased to grie ve. and it was subsequently ascertained 
that the young man had run away to sea; but no more 
was known of him. Certain it was, however, that she 
attributed her recovered tranquillity to having seen her 
son as above narrated. 

A lady, with whom I am acquainted, when she was 
a girl, was one day standing at the top of the stairs, 
with two others, discussing their games, when they 
each suddenly exclaimed, " Who's that V' There was a 
fourth among them; a girl in a checked pinafore; but 
she was gone again. They had all seen her. One day 
a younger brother, in the same house, was playing with 
a whip, when he suddenly struck at something, and 
cried, " Take that !" and described having seen the 
same girl. This led to some inquiry, and it was said 
that such a girl as they described had lived in that 
house, and had died from the bite of a mad dog; or, 
rather, had been smothered between two feather beds ; 
but whether that was actually done, or was only a 
report, I cannot say. Supposing this to have been no 
illusion, and I really cannot see how it could be one, 
the memory of past sports and pleasures seems to have 
so survived, as to have attracted the young soul, pre- 
maturely cut off, to the spot where similar sports and 
pleasures were being enjoyed by the living. 



APPARITIONS. 205 

A maid servant, in one of the midland counties of 
England, being up early one morning, heard her name 
called in a voice that seemed to be her brother's, a 
sailor then at sea; and running up, she found him stand- 
ing in the hall; he said he was come from afar, and was 
going again, and mentioned some other things, when 
her mistress hearing voices, called to know who she was 
talking to; she said, it was her brother from sea. After 
speaking to her for some time, she suddenly lost sight 
of him, and found herself alone. Amazed j*~d puzzled, 
she told her mistress what had happened, who being 
led thus to suspect the kind of visitor it was, looked 
out of the window to ascertain if there were any marks 
of footsteps, the ground being covered with snow. 
There were however none, and it was therefore clear 
that nobody could have entered the house. Intelli- 
gence afterwards arrived of the young man's death. 

This last is a case of wraith, but a more complicated 
one, from the circumstance of speech being superadded. 
But this is not by any means an isolated particular; 
there are many such. The author of the book called 
"Accredited Ghost Stories," whose name I at this 
moment forget, and I have not the book at hand, gives, 
on his own authority, the following circumstance, pro- 
fessing to be acquainted with the parties. A com- 
pany were visiting York Cathedral, when a gentleman 
and lady who had detached themselves from the rest, 
observed an officer wearing a naval uniform approaching 
them; he walked quickly, saying to the lady as he 
passed, " There is another world." The gentleman, 
seeing her greatly agitated, pursued the stranger, but 
lost sight of him, and nobody had seen such a person 
but themselves. On returning to his companion, she 
told him that it was her brother, who was then abroad 
with his ship, and with whom she had frequently held 
discussions as to whether there was or was not a 
future life. The news of the young man's death shortly 
reached the family. In this case, the brother must 
have been dead j th^ ^irit must have passed out of this 



206 APPARITIONS. 

world into that other, the existence of which he came 
to certify. This is one of those cases which, happen- 
ing not long ago, leads one especially to regret the want 
of moral courage which prevents people giving up their 
names, and avowing their experience. The author of 
the above-mentioned book, from which I borrow this 
story, says, that the sheet had gone to the press with 
the real names of the parties attached, but that he was 
requested to withdraw them, as it would be painful 
to the family. My view of this case is so different, 
that had it occurred to myself, I should have felt it my 
imperative duty to make it known, and give every satis- 
faction to inquirers. 

Some years ago, during the war, when Sir Robert 
H. E. was in the Netherlands, he happened to be quar- 
tered with two other officers, one of whom was des- 
patched into Holland on an expedition. One night, 
during his absence, Sir It. H. E. awoke, and, to his 
great surprise, saw this absent friend sitting on the bed 
which he used to occupy, with a wound in his breast. 
Sir It. immediately awoke his companion, who saw the 
spectre also. The latter then addressed them, saying, 
that he had been that day killed in a skirmish, and 
that he had died in great anxiety about his family, 
wherefore he had come to communicate that there was 
a deed of much consequence to them deposited in the 
hands of a certain lawyer in London, whose name and 
address he mentioned, adding that this man's honesty 
was not to be altogether relied on. He therefore re- 
quested that, on their return to England, they would 
go to his house and demand the deed, but that, if he 
denied the possession of it, they were to seek it in a 
certain drawer in his office, which he described to them. 
Thr circumstance impressed them very much at the 
time, but a long while had elapsed ere they reached Eng- 
land, during which period they had gone through so many 
vicissitudes and seen so many friends fall around them, 



APPARITIONS. 207 

that this impression was considerably weakened, inso- 
much that each went to his own home and his own 
pursuits without thinking of fulfilling the commission 
they had undertaken. Some time afterwards, however, 
it happened that they both met in London, and they 
then resolved to seek the street that had been named 
to them, and ascertain if such a man lived there. They 
found him, requested an interview, and demanded tho 
deed, the possession of which he denied ; but their eyes 
were upon the drawer that had been described to them ; 
where they asserted it to be; and being there dis- 
covered, it was delivered into their hands. Here, also, 
the soul departed from the body whilst the memory of 
the past and an anxiety for the worldly prosperity of 
those left behind survived; and we thus see that the 
condition of mind in which this person had died re- 
mained unchanged. He was not indifferent to the 
worldly prosperity of his relatives, and he found his 
own state rendered unhappy by the fear that they might 
suffer from the dishonesty of his agent. It may here 
be naturally objected that hundreds of much-loved 
widows and orphans have been ruined by dishonest 
trustees and agents, where no ghost came back to in- 
struct them in the means of obviating the misfortune. 
This is, no doubt, a very legitimate objection, and one 
which it is very difficult to answer. I must, however, 
repeat what I said before ; nature is full of exceptional 
cases, whilst w^e know very little of the laws which 
regulate these exceptions ; but we may see a very good 
reason for the fact that such communications are the 
exception, and not the rule ; for if they were the latter, 
the whole economy of this earthly life would be over- 
turned, and its affairs must necessarily be conducted 
in a totally different manner to that which prevails at 
present. What the effects of such an arrangement of 
nature would be, had it pleased God to make it, he 
alone knows; but certain it is, that man's freedom, as 



208 APPARITIONS. 

a moral agent, would be in a great degree abrogated, 
were the barriers that impede our intercourse with the 
spiritual world removed. 

It may be answered, that this is an argument which 
may be directed against the fact of such appearances 
being permitted at all : but that is a fallacious objection. 
Earthquakes and hurricanes are occasionally permitted, 
which overthrow the work of man's hands for centuries ; 
but if these convulsions of nature were of every-day 
occurrence, nobody would think it worth their while to 
build a house or cultivate the earth, and the world 
would be a wreck and a wilderness. The apparitions 
that do appear, are not without their use to those who 
believe in them ; whilst there is too great an uncertainty 
attending the subject, generally, to allow of its ever 
being taken into consideration in mundane affairs. 

The old, so called, superstition of the people, that a 
person's " dying with something on his mind," is one of 
the frequent causes of these revisitings, seems, like most 
of their other superstitions, to be founded on experience. 
I meet with many cases in which some apparently 
trivial anxiety, or some frustrated communication, pre 
vents the uneasy spirit flinging off the bonds that bind 
it to the earth. I could quote many examples charac- 
terized by this feature, but will confine myself to two 
or three. 

Jung Stilling gives a very curious one, which occurred 
in the year 1746, and for the authenticity of which he 
vouches. A gentleman, of the name of Dorrien, of most 
excellent character and amiable disposition, who was 
tutor in the Carolina Colleges at Brunswick, died there 
in that year; and immediately previous to his death, 
he sent to request an interview with another tutor, of 
*,he name of Hofer, with whom he had lived on terms 
of friendship. Hofer obeyed the summons, but came 
too late ; the dying man was already in the last agonies. 
After a short time, rumours began to circulate that 
Herr Dorrien had been seen by different persons about 



APPARITIONS. 209 

the college; but as it was with the pupils that these 
rumours originated, they were supposed to be mere 
fancies, and no attention whatever was paid to them. 
At length, however, in the month of October, three 
months after the decease of Herr Dorrien, a circumstance 
occurred that excited considerable amazement amongst 
the professors. It formed part of the duty of Hofer to 
go through the college every night between the hours 
of eleven and twelve, for the purpose of ascertaining 
that all the scholars were in bed. and that nothing irre- 
gular was going on amongst them. On the night in 
question, on entering one of the ante-rooms in the exe- 
cution of this duty, he saw, to his great amazement, 
Herr Dorrien, seated, in the dressing-gown, and white 
cap he was accustomed to wear, and holding the latter 
with his right hand, in such a uianntj* as to conceal 
the upper part of the face ; from the eyes to the chin, 
however, it was distinctly visible. This unexpected 
sight naturally startled Hofer, but summoning reso- 
lution, he advanced into the young man's chamber, 
and having ascertained that all was in order, closed the 
door; he then turned his eyes again towards the spectre, 
and there it sat as before, whereupon he went up to it, 
and stretched out his arm towards it ; but he was now 
seized with such a feeling of indescribable horror that 
he could scarcely withdraw his hand, which became 
swollen to a degree that for some months he had 
no use of it. On the following day he related this cir- 
cumstance to the professor of mathematics, Oeder, who 
of course treated the thing as a spectral illusion. He 
however consented to accompany Hofer on his rounds 
the ensuing night, satisfied that he should be able either 
to convince him it was a mere phantasm, or else a 
spectre of flesh and blood who was playing liim a trick. 
They accordingly went at the usual hour, but no sooner 
had the professor of mathematics set his foot in that 
same room, than he exclaimed, " By Heavens, it is 
Dorrien himself!" Hofer in the meantime proceeded 



210 APPARITIONS. 

into the chamber as before, in pursuance of his duties, 
and on his return they both contemplated the figure for 
some time; they had, however, neither of them the 
courage to address or approach it, and finally quitted 
the room very much impressed, and perfectly convinced 
that they had seen Dorrien. This incident soon got 
spread abroad, and many people came in hopes of satis- 
fying their own eyes of the fact, but their pains were 
fruitless ; and even Professor Oeder, who had made up 
his mind to speak to the apparition, sought it repeat- 
edly in the same place in vain. At length he gave it 
up, and ceased to think of it, saying, " I have sought 
the ghost long enough; if he has anything to say, he 
must now seek me." About a fortnight after this, he 
was suddenly awakened between three and four o'clock 
in the morning, by something moving in his chamber, 
and on opening his eyes he beheld a shadowy form, 
having the same appearance as the spectre, standing in 
front of a press which was not more than two steps 
from his bed. He raised himself, and contemplated the 
figure, the features of which he saw distinctly for some 
minutes, till it disappeared. On the following night he 
was awakened in the same manner, and saw the figure 
as before, with the addition that there was a sound pro- 
ceeded from the door of the press, as if somebody was 
leaning against it. The spectre also stayed longer this 
time, and Professor Oeder. no doubt frightened and 
angry, addressing it as an evil spirit, bade it begone, 
whereon it made gestures with its head and hands that 
alarmed him so much that he adjured it, in the name 
of God, to leave him, which it did. Eight days now 
elapsed without any further disturbance, but after 
that period the visits of the spirit were resumed, and he 
was awakened by it repeatedly about three in the morn- 
ing, when it would advance from the press to the bed, 
and hang its head over him in a manner so annoying, 
that he started up and struck at it, whereupon it would 
retire, but presently advance axcain. Perceiving now 



APPARITIONS. 211 

that the countenance was rather placid and friendly 
than otherwise, the professor at length addressed it; 
and having reason to believe that Dorrien had left some 
debts unpaid, he asked him if that were the case, upon 
which the spectre retreated some steps, and seemed to 
place itself in an attitude of attention. Oeder reite- 
rated the inquiry, whereupon the figure drew its hand 
across its mouth, in which the professor now observed a 
short pipe. " Is it to the barber you are in debt?" 
he inquired. The spectre slowly shook its head. " Is 
it to the tobacconist, then?" asked he, the question 
being suggested by the pipe. Hereupon the form 
retreated, and disappeared. On the following day, 
Oeder narrated what had occurred to Councillor Erath, 
one of the curators of the college, and also to the sister 
of the deceased, and arrangements were made for dis- 
charging the debt. Professor Seidler, of the same col- 
lege, now proposed to pass the night with Oeder, for the 
purpose of observing if the ghost came again, which it 
did about five o'clock, and awoke Oeder as usual, who 
awoke his companion, but just then the form dis- 
appeared, and Seidler said he only saw something white. 
They then both disposed themselves to sleep, but pre- 
sently Seidler was aroused by Oeder's starting up and 
striking out, whilst he cried out with a voice expres- 
sive of rage and horror, " Begone ! You have tormented 
me long enough ! If you want anything of me, say 
what it is, or give me an intelligible sign, and come 
here no more !" 

Seidler heard all this, though he saw nothing; but as 
soon as Oeder was somewhat appeased, he told him that 
the figure had returned, and not only approached the 
bed, but stretched itself upon it. After this, Oeder 
burnt a light, and had some one in the room with him 
every night. He gained this advantage by the light, 
that he saw nothing; but between the hours of three 
and five, he was generally awakened by noises in his 
room, and other symptoms that satisfied him the ghost 



212 APPARITIONS. 

was there. At length, however, this annoyance ceased 
also; and trusting that his unwelcome guest had taken 
his leave, he dismissed his bed-fellow, and dispensed with 
his light. Two nights passed quietly over: on the third, 
however, the spectre returned; but very perceptibly 
darker. It now presented another sign, or symbol, 
which seemed to represent a picture with a hole in the 
middle, through which it thrust its head. Oeder was 
now so little alarmed, that he bade it express its wishes 
more clearly, or approach nearer. To these requisitions 
the apparition shook its head, and then vanished. This 
strange phenomenon recurred several times, and* even in 
the presence of another curator of the college; but it 
was with considerable difficulty they discovered what the 
symbol was meant to convey. They at length, however, 
found that Dorrien, just before his illness, had obtained, 
on trial, several pictures for a magic lantern, which had 
never been returned to their owner. This was now done, 
and from that time the apparition was neither seen nor 
heard again. Professor Oeder made no secret of these 
circumstances; he related them publicly in court and 
college; he wrote the account to several eminent persons, 
and declared himself ready to attest the facts upon his 
oath. 

Stilling, who relates this story, has been called super- 
stitious ; he may be so ; but his piety and Ins honesty 
are above suspicion. He says the facts are well known, 
and that he can vouch for their authenticity; and as he 
must have been a cotemporary of the parties concerned, 
he had, doubtless, good opportunities of ascertaining 
what foundation there wa,s for the story. It is cer- 
tainly a very extraordinary one, and the demeanour of 
the spirit as little like what we should have naturally 
apprehended as possible; but, as I have said before, we 
have n* right to pronounce any opinion on this subject, 
except from experience, and there are two arguments to 
be advanced in favour of this narration; the one being, 
that I cannot imagine anybody, setting about to invent 



APPARITIONS. 213 

a ghost story, would have introduced circumstances so 
apparently improbable and inappropriate ; and the other, 
consisting in the fact that I have met "with numerous 
relations, coming from very opposite quarters, which 
seem to corroborate the one in question. 

With respect to the cause of the spectre's appearance, 
Jung Stilling, I think reasonably enough, suggests, that 
the poor man had intended to commission Hofer to 
settle these little affairs for him, but that, delaying this 
duty too long, his mind had been oppressed by the 
recollection of them in his last moments — he had 
carried his care with him and it bound him to the 
earth. Wherefore, considering how many persons die 
wi:h duties unperformed, this anxiety to repair the 
neglect is not more frequently manifested, we do not 
know; some reason we have already suggested as pos- 
sible; there may be others of which we can form no idea, 
any more than we can solve the question, why in some 
cases communication and even speech seems easy, whilst 
in this instance the spirit was only able to convey its 
wishes by gestures and symbols. Its addressing itself 
to Oeder instead of Hofer, probably arose from its 
finding communication with him less difficult; the 
swelling of Hofer s arm indicating that his physical 
natme was not adapted for this spiritual intercourse. 
With respect to Oeder's expedient of burning a light in 
his room, in order to prevent his seeing the shadowy 
form, we can comprehend that the figure would be 
discerned more easily on the dark ground of com- 
parative obscurity, and that clear light would render it 
invisible. Dr. Kerner mentions, on one occasion, that 
whilst sitting in an adjoining room, with the door open, 
he had seen a shadowy figure, to whom his patient was 
speaking, standing beside her bed; and catching up a 
candle, he had rushed towards it; but as soon as he had 
thus illuminated the chamber, he could no longer dis- 
tinguish it. 

The ineffective and awkward attempts of this appari- 



JJ14 APPARITIONS. 

tion to make itself understood, are not easily to be 
reconciled to our ideas of a spirit, whilst at the same 
time, that which it could do and that which it could 
not — the powers it possessed and those it wanted — tend 
to throw some light on its condition. As regards space, 
we may suppose, that in this instance what St. Martin 
said of ghosts in general may be applicable, " Je ne 
crois pas aux revenants, mais je croix aux restants" 
that is, he did not believe that spirits who had once 
quitted the earth returned to it, but he believed that 
some did not quit it, and thus, as the somnambule men- 
tioned in a former chapter said to me, u Some are wait- 
ing and some are gone on before." Dorrien's uneasi- 
ness and worldly care chained him to the earth, and he 
was a restant, but being a spirit, he was inevitably in- 
ducted into some of the inherent properties of spirit ; 
matter to him was no impediment, neither doors nor 
walls could keep him out ; he had the intuitive percep- 
tion of whom he could most easily communicate with, 
or he was brought into rapport with Oeder by the 
latter's seeking him ; and he could either so act on 
Oeder's constructive imagination, as to enable it to pro- 
ject his own figure, with the short pipe and the pictures, 
or he could, by the magical power of his will, build up 
these images out of the constituents of the atmosphere. 
The last seems the most probable, because, had the 
rapport with Oeder, or Oeder's receptivity, been suffi- 
cient to enable the spirit to act potently upon him, it 
would have been also able to infuse into his mind the 
wishes it desired to convey, even without speech, for 
speech, as a means of communication betwixt sj^irits, 
must be quite unnecessary. Even in spite of these 
dense bodies of ours, we have great difficulty in concealing 
our thoughts from each other ; and the somnambule reads 
the thoughts, not only of his magnetiser, but of others 
with whom he is placed in rapport. In cases where 
speech appears to be used by a spirit, it is frequently not 
audible speech, but only this transference of thought, 



APPARITIONS. 2i& 

which appears to be speech from the manner in which 
the thought is borne in and enters the mind of the 
leceiver ; but it is not through his ears, but through 
his universal supplementary sense, that he receives it ; 
and it is no more like what we mean by hearing, than 
is the seeing of a clairvoyant, or a spirit, like our seeing. 
by means of our bodily organs. In those cases where 
the speech is audible to other persons, we must suppose 
that the magical will of the spirit can, by means of the 
atmosphere, simulate these sounds as it can simulate 
others, of which I shall have to treat by and by. It 
is remarkable, that, in some instances, this magical 
power seems to extend so far as to represent to the eye 
of the seer a form apparently so real, solid, and life-like, 
that it is not recognisable from the living man ; whilst in 
other cases the production of a shadowy figure seems to 
be the limit of its agency, whether limited by its own 
faculty, or the receptivity of its subject ; but we must be 
quite sure that the form is, in either instance, equally 
ethereal or immaterial. And it will not be out of place 
here to refer to the standing joke of the sceptics about 
ghosts appearing in coats and waistcoats. Bentham 
thought he had settled the question for ever by that 
objection ; and I have heard it since frequently ad- 
vanced by very acute persons, but, properly considered, 
it has not the least validity. 

Whether or not the soul on leaving its earthly 
tabernacle finds itself at once clothed with that spiritual 
body which St. Paul refers to, is what we cannot know, 
though it seems highly probable; but if it be so, we 
must be sure that this body resembles in its nature that 
iluent subtle kind of matter, called by us imponderables, 
which are capable of penetrating all substances; and 
unless there be no visible body at all, but only the will 
of a disembodied spirit acting upon one yet in the 
flesh, in which case it were as easy to impress the 
imagination with a clothed figure as an unclothed one, 
ire must conclude that this ethereal flexible form, 



216 APPARITIONS, 

whether permanent or temporary, may be held together 
and retain its shape by the volition of the spirit, as oui 
bodies are held together by the principle of life that U 
in them; and we see in various instances, where the 
spectator has been bold enough to try the experiment, 
that though the shadowy body was pervious to any 
substance passed through it, its integrity was only 
momentarily interrupted, arid it immediately recovered 
its previous shape. Now as a spirit, provided there be 
no especial law to the contrary, partial or universal, 
absolute or otherwise, governing the spiritual world, 
must be where its thoughts and wishes are, just as we 
should be at the place we intently think of, or desire, if 
our solid bodies did not impede us, so must a spirit 
appear as it is, or as it conceives of itself; morally, it 
can only conceive of itself as it is, good or bad, light or 
dark; but it may conceive of itself clothed as wdU as 
unclothed; and if it can conceive of its former body it 
can equally conceive of its former habiliments, and so 
represent them, by its power of will to the eye, or pre- 
sent them to the constructive imagination of the seer: 
and it will be able to do this with a degree of distinct- 
ness proportioned to the receptivity of the latter, or to 
the intensity of the rapport which exists between them. 
Now, considered in this way, the appearance of a spirit 
" in its habit as it lived," is no more extraordinary than 
the appearance of a spirit at all, and it adds no com- 
plexity to the phenomenon. If it appears at all, in a 
recognisable form, it must come naked or clothed; the 
former, to say the least of it, would be much more 
frightful and shocking; and if it be clothed, I do not 
see what right we have to expect it shall be in a fancy 
costume, conformable to our ideas, which are no ideas 
at all, of the other world; nor why, if it be endowed 
with the memory of the past, it should not be natural 
fco suppose it would assume the external aspect it wore 
during its earthly pilgrimage. Certain it is, whether 



APPARITIONS. 2i7 

consistent with onr notions or not, all tradition seems 
to show that this is the appearance they assume; and 
the very fact, that on the first view of the case, and 
until the question is philosophically considered, the 
addition of a suit of clothes to the phenomenon not 
only renders its acceptance much more difficult, but 
throws an air of absurdity and improbability on the 
whole subject, furnishes a v%y strong argument in 
favour of the persuasun, that this notion has been 
founded on experience, and is not the result either of 
fancy or gratuitous invention. 'The idea of spirits 
appearing like angels, with wings, &c, seems to be 
drawn from those relations in the Bible, when messengers 
were sent from God to man; but those departed spirits 
are not angels, though probably destined in . the 
course of ages to become so; in the mean time, their 
• moral state continues as when they quitted the body, 
and their memories and affections are with the 
earth, and so earthly they appear more or less. We 
meet with some instances in which bright spirits have 
been seen; protecting spirits, for example, who have 
shaken off their earth entirely, clinging to it yet, but 
by some holy affection or mission of mercy, and these 
appear, not with wings, which whenever seen are merely 
symbolical, for we cannot imagine they are necessary to 
the motion of a spirit, but clothed in robes of light. 
Such appearances, however, seem much more rare than 
the others. It will seem to many persons very incon- 
sistent with their ideas of the dignity of a spirit that 
they should appear and act in the manner I have 
described, and shall describe further; and I have heard 
it objected that we cannot suppose God would permit the 
dead to return merely to frighten the living, and tha£ 
it is showing him little reverence to imagine he would 
suffer them to come on such trifling errands, or demean 
themselves in so undignified a fashion. But God 
permits men of all degrees of wickedness, and ot every 



218 APPARITIONS. 

kind of absurdity, to exist, and to harass and disturb 
the earth, whilst they expose themselves to its obloquy 
or its ridicule. 

Now, as I have observed in a former chapter, there 
is nothing more perplexing to us in regarding man as a 
responsible being, than the degree to which we have 
reason to believe his moral nature is influenced by his 
physical organization; but leaving this difficult question 
to be decided — if ever it can be decided in this world — ' 
by wiser heads than mine, there is one thing of which- 
we may rest perfectly assured, namely, that let the 
fault of an impure, or vicious, or even merely sensuous 
life, lie where it will — whether it be the wicked spirit 
within, or the ill-organized body without, or a tertium 
quid of both combined, — still, the soul that has been a 
party to this earthly career must be soiled and dete- 
riorated by its familiarity with evil; and there seems 
much reason to believe that the dissolution of the con- 
nexion between the soul and body produces far less A 
change in the former than has been commonly supposed, k 
People generally think, if they think on the subject at I 
all, that as soon as they are dead, provided they have | 
lived tolerably virtuous lives, or indeed been free from 
any great crimes, they will immediately find themselves 
provided with wings, and straightway fly up to some 
delightful place, which they call heaven, forgetting how ijP 
unfit they are for heavenly fellowship; and although. I 5 
cannot help thinking that the Almighty has mercifully It 
permitted occasional relaxations of the boundaries that I 
separate the dead from the living, for the purpose of I 
showing us our error, we are determined not to avail ; 
ourselves of the advantage. I do not mean that these I 
spirits — these revenants or restants — are special messen- f 
gers sent to warn us; I only mean that their occasionally | 
"revisiting the glimpses of the moon" form the excep- 
tional cases in a great general law of nature, which 
divides the spiritual from the material world; and that 



i 



APPARITIONS. 219 

in fiaming this law, these exceptions may have been 
designed for our benefit. 

There are several stories extant in the English, and 
a vast, number in the German records, which, supposing 
them to be well founded — and I repeat, that for many 
of them we have just as good evidence as for anything 
else we believe as hearsay or tradition — would go to 
confirm the fact that the spirits of the dead are some- 
times disturbed by what appear to us very trifling 
cares. I give the following case from Dr. Kerner, who 
says it was related to liini by a very respectable man, 
on whose word he can entirely rely. 

"I was," said Mr. St. S., of S — , "the son of a man 
who had no fortune but his business, in which he was 
ultimately successful. At first, however, his means 
being narrow, he was perhaps too anxious, and inclined 
to parsimony ; so that when my mother, careful house- 
wife as she was, asked him for money, the demand 
generally led to a quarrel. This occasioned her great 
uneasiness, and having mentioned this characteristic of 
her husband to her father, the old man advised her to 
get a second key made to the money-chest, unknown 
to her husband, considering this expedient allowable 
and even preferable to the destruction of their conjugal 
felicity, and feeling satisfied that she would make no ill 
use of the power possessed. My mother followed his 
advice, very much to the advantage of all parties; and 
nobody suspected the existence of this second key, 
except myself, whom she had admitted into her confi- 
dence. Two and twenty years my parents lived hap- 
pily together, when I, being at the time about eighteen 
hours' joarney from home, received a letter from my 
father, informing me that my mother was ill; that he 
hoped for her speedy amendment ; but that if she grew 
worse he would send a horse to fetch me home to see 
her. I was extremely busy at that time, and therefore 
waited for further intelligence, and as several days 



220 APPARITIONS. 

elapsed without any reaching nie, I trusted she was 
convalescent. One night, feeling myself unwell, I had 
lain down on the bed with my clothes on to take a 
little rest. It was between eleven and twelve o'clock, 
and I had not been to sleep, when some one knocked at 
the door, and my mother entered, dressed as she usually 
was. She saluted me, and said, i We shall see each 
other no more in this world, but I have an injunction 
t»o give you. I have given that key to E,. (naming a 
servant we then had), and she will remit it to you. 
Keep it carefully, or throw it into the water, but never 
let your father see it ; it would trouble him. Farewell, 
and walk virtuously through life I' And with these 
words she turned and quitted the room by the door, as 
i entered it. I immediately arose, called up my 
people, expressed my apprehension that my mother was 
dead, and without further delay started for home. At- 
I approached the house, R.., the maid, came out, and 
informed me that my mother tad expired betwixt the 
hours of eleven and twelve on the preceding night. As 
there was another person present at the moment, she 
said nothing further to me, but she took an early 
opportunity of remitting me the key, saying that my 
mother had given it to her just before she expired. p 
desiring her to place it in my hands, with an injunction 
that I should keep it carefully, or fling it into the 
water, so that my father might never know anything 
about it. I took the key, kept it for some years, and 
at length threw it into the Lahne." 

I am aware that it may be objected by those who 
believe in wraiths, but in no other kind of apparition, 
that this phenomenon occurred before the death of the 
lady, and that it was produced by her vehement anxiety 
with regard to the key; it may be so, or it may not; 
but at all events, we see in this case how a compara- 
tively trifling uneasiness may disturb a dying person, 
and how, therefore, if memory remains to them, they 



i 



APPARITIONS. 221 

may carry the uneasiness with them, and seek by such 
means as they have, to obtain relief from it. 

A remarkable instance of anxiety for the welfare of 
those left behind, is exhibited in the following story, 
which I received from a member of the family con- 
cerned : — Mrs. R, a lady very well connected, lost her 
husband when in the prime of life, and found herself 
with four been children unprovided for. The over- 
whelming nature of the calamity depressed her energies 
to such a degree as to render her incapable of those 
exertions which could alone redeem them from ruin. 
The flood of misfortune seemed too strong for her, and 
she yielded to it without resistance. She had thus 
given way to despondency for some time, when one 
day, as she was sitting alone, the door opened, and her 
mother, who had been a considerable time dead, entered 
the room and addressed her, reproving her for this 
weak indulgence of useless sorrow, and bidding her 
exert herself for the sake of her children. From that 
period she threw off the depression, set actively to work 
to promote the fortunes of her family, and succeeded so 
well that they ultimately emerged from all their diffi- 
culties. I asked the gentleman who related this cir- 
cumstance to me, whether he believed it. He answered 
that he could only assure me that she herself affirmed 
the fact, and that she avowedly attributed the sudden 
change in her character and conduct to this cause — for 
his own part, he did not know what to say, finding it 
difficult to believe in the possibility of such a visit from 
the dead. 

A somewhat similar instance is related by Dr. Kerner, 
which he says he received from the party himself a man 
of sense and probity. This gentleman, Mr. F., at an 
early age lost his mother. Two and twenty years after- 
w ards he formed an attachment to a young person, whose 
hand he resolved to ask in marriage. Having one 
evening seated himself at his desk, lor the purpose of 



222 APPARITIONS. 

writing Lis proposal, he was amazed, on accidentally 
lifting his eyes from the paper, to see his mother, look- 
ing exactly as if alive, seated opposite to him ; whilst 
she, raising her finger with a warning gesture, said, " Do 
not that thing !" Not the least alarmed, Mr. F. started 
up to approach her, whereupon she disappeared. Being 
very much attached to the lady, however, he did not 
feel disposed to follow her counsel : but having read 
the letter to his father, who highly approved of the 
match, and who laughed at the ghost, he returned to 
his chamber to seal it, when, whilst he was adding the 
superscription, she again appeared as before, and reite- 
rated her injunction. But love conquered; the letter 
was dispatched, the marriage ensued, and after ten 
years of strife and unhappiness was dissolved by a judi- 
cial process. 

A remarkable circumstance occurred, about forty 
years ago, in the family of Dr. Paulus at Stuttgard. 
The wife of the head of the family having died, they, 
with some of their connexions, were sitting at table 
a few days afterwards, in the room adjoining that in 
which the corpse lay, when suddenly the door of the 
latter apartment opened, and the figure of the mother, 
clad in white robes, entered, and saluting them as she 
passed, walked slowly and noiselessly through the room, 
and then disappeared again through the door by which 
she had entered. The whole company saw the appa- 
rition ; but the father, who was at that time quite in 
health, died eight days afterwards. 

Madame B. had promised an old wood-cutter, who 
had a particular horror of dying in the poor-house, be- 
cause he knew his body would be given to the surgeons, 
that she would take care to see him properly interred. 
The old man lived some years afterwards, and she had 
quite lost sight of him, and indeed forgotten fie C7i- 
cumstance, when she was one night awakened by tne 
Bound of some one cutting wood in her bed-enamber; 



APPARITIONS. 22$ 

and so perfect was the imitation, that she heard every 
log jfluiig aside as separated. She started up, exclaim- 
ing, "The old man must be dead!" and so it proved; 
his last anxiety having been that Madame R. should re- 
member her promise. 

That our interest in whatever has much concerned 
us in this life accompanies us beyond the grave, seems 
to be proved by many stories I meet with, and the fol- 
lowing is of undoubted authenticity : — Some years ago, 
a music-master died at Erfurt, at the age of seventy. He 
was a miser, and had never looked with very friendly 
eyes on Professor Rinck, the composer, who he knew 
was likely to succeed to his classes. The old man had 
lived and died in an apartment adjoining the class- 
room; and the first day that Rinck entered on his 
office, whilst the scholars were singing Aus der tiefe ruf 
ich dich, which is a paraphrase of the Be profundis, he 
thought he saw through a hole or bull's eye there was 
in the door something moving about the inner chamber. 
As the room was void of every kind of furniture, and 
nobody could possibly be in it, Rinck looked more 
hxedly : when he distinctly saw a shadow, whose move- 
ments were accompanied by a strange rustling sound. 
Perplexed at the circumstance, he told his pupils that 
on the following day he should require them to repeat 
the same choral. They did so ; and whilst they were 
singing, Rinck saw a person walking backwards and 
forwards, in the next room, who frequently approached 
the hole in the door. Very much struck with so 
extraordinary a circumstance, Rinck had the choral 
repeated on the ensuing day ; and this time his suspi- 
cions were fully confirmed; the old man 5 his pre- 
decessor, approaching the door, and gazing steadfastly 
into the class-room. " His face," said Rinck, in relating 
the story to Dr. Mainzer, who has obligingly furnished 
it to me as entered in his journal at the time, — " his face 
was of an ashy gray. The apparition/' he added, 



224 APPARITIONS. 

" never more appeared to me, although T frequently had 
the choral repeated. 

" I am no believer in ghost stories," said Binck, " nor 
in the least superstitious; nevertheless, I cannot help 
admitting that I have seen this; it is impossible forme 
ever to douht or to deny that which I know I saw.*' 



2is5 



CHAPTER X, 

THE FUTURE THAT AWAITS US. 

In all ages of the world, and in all parts of it, mankind 
have earnestly desired to learn the fate that awaited 
them when they had " shuffled off this mortal coil;" 
and those pretending to be their instructors have built 
up different systems which have stood in the stead of 
knowledge, and more or less satisfied the bulk of the 
people. The interest on this subject is, at the present 
period, in the most highly civilized portions of the 
globe, less than it has been at any preceding one. The 
great proportion of us live for this world alone, and 
think very little of the next; we are in too great a 
hurry of pleasure or business to bestow any time on a 
subject of which we have such vague notions — notions 
so vague, that, in short, we can scarcely by any effort 
of the imagination bring the idea home to ourselves; 
and when we are about to die we are seldom in a 
situation to do more than resign ourselves to what is 
inevitable, and blindly meet our fate; whilst, on the 
other hand, what is generally called the religious 
world, is so engrossed by its struggles for power and 
money, or by its sectarian disputes and enmities; and 
so narrowed and circumscribed by dogmatic ortho- 
doxies, that it has neither inclination nor liberty to 
turn back or look around, and endeavour to gather up 
from past records and present observation, such hints 
as are now and again dropt in our path to give us an 
intimation of what the truth may be. The rationalistic 
age, too, out of which we are only just emerging, and 



22$ THE F^URE 

which succeeded one of gross superstition, having 
settled, beyond appeal, that there never was such a 
thing as a ghost — that the dead never do come back to 
tell us the secrets of their prison-house, and that 
nobody believes such idle tales but children and old 
women, seemed to have shut the door against the only 
channel through which any information could be 
sought. Revelation tells us very little on this subject, 
Reason ea& tell us nothing; and if Nature is equally 
silent, or if we are to be deterred from questioning her 
from the fear of ridicule, there is certainly no resource 
left for us but to rest contented in our ignorance; and 
each wait till the awful secret is disclosed to ourselves. 
A great many things have been pronounced untrue and 
absurd, and even impossible, by the highest authorities 
in the age in which they lived, which have afterwards, 
and indeed within a very short period, been found to 
be both possible and true. I confess myself, for one, 
to have no respect whatever for these dogmatic denials 
and affirmations, and I am quite of opinion that vulgar 
incredulity is a much more contemptible thing than 
vulgar credulity. We know very little of what is 
and still less of what may be; and till a thing has beer. 
proved, by induction, logically impossible, we have no 
right whatever to pronounce that it is so. As I have 
said before, a priori conclusions are perfectly worthless, 
and the sort of investigation that is bestowed upon 
subjects of the class of which I am treating, something 
worse; inasmuch as they deceive the timid and the 
ignorant, and that very numerous class which phis its 
faith on .authority and never ventures to think for 
itself, by an assumption of wisdom and knowledge, 
which, if examined and analyzed, would very frequently 
prove to be nothing more respectable than obstinate 
prejudice and rash assertion. 

For my own part, I repeat, I insist upon nothing. 
The opinions I have formed from the evidence collected 
may be quite erroneous; if so, as I seek only the truth, 



THAT MY UTS US. 227 

I shall be glad to be undeceived, and shall be quice 
ready to accept a better explanation of these facts 
whenever it is offered to mej but it is in vain to tell 
me that this explanation is to be found in what is 
called imagination, or in a morbid state of the nerves, 
or an unusual excitement of the organs of wonder, 
colour, and form, or in imposture; or in all these together. 
The existence of all such sources of error and delusion. 
I am far from denying, but I find instances that it is 
quite impossible to reduce under any one of these cate- 
gories, as w T e at present understand them. The multi- 
plicity of these instances, too — for not to mention the 
large number that are never made known, or carefully 
concealed, if I were to avail myself liberally of cases 
already recorded in various works, many of which I 
know, and many others I hear of as existing, but 
which I cannot conveniently get access to, I might 
fill volumes— German literature abounds in them 
—the number of the examples, I repeat, even on 
the supposition that they are not facts, would of 
itself form the subject of a very curious physiological 
or psychological inquiry. If so many people in re- 
spectable situations of life, and in apparently a normal . 
state of health, are either capable of such gross 
impostures, or the subjects of such extraordinary 
spectral illusions, it would certainly be extremely 
satisfactory to learn something of the conditions that 
induce these phenomena in such abundance; and all I 
expect from my book at present is, to induce a suspi- 
cion that we are not quite so wise as we think ourselves; 
and that it might be worth while to inquire a little 
seriously into reports, which may perchance turn out 
to have a deeper interest for us than all those various 
questions, public and private, put together, with which 
we are daily agitating our minds. 

I have alluded, in an earlier part of this work, to the 
belief entertained by the ancients, that the souls of 
men, on behi£ disengaged from the bodies, passed into 



228 THE FUTURE 

a middle state, called Hades, in which their portions 
seemed neither to be that of complete happiness nor of 
insupportable misery. They retained their personality, 
their human form, their memory of the past, and theil 
interest in those that had been dear to them on earth. 
Communications were occasionally made by the dead to 
the living; they mourned over their duties neglected 
end their errors committed; many of their mortal 
feelings, passions, and propensities, seemed to survive; 
and they sometimes sought to repair, through the 
instrumentality of the living, the injuries +hey had 
formerly inflicted. In short, death was merely a 
transition from one condition of life to another; but in 
this latter state, although we do not see them con- 
demned to undergo any torments, we perceive that they 
are not happy. There are indeed compartments in this 
dark region; there is Tartarus for the wicked, and the 
Elysian fields for the good, but they are comparatively 
thinly peopled. It is in the mid region that these pale 
shades abound, consistently with the fact, that here on 
-earth, moral as well as intellectual mediocrity is the 
rale, and extremes of good or evil the exceptions. 

With regard to the opinion entertained of a future 
state by the Hebrews, the Old Testament gives us very 
little information; but what glimpses we do obtain of it, 
appear to exhibit notions analogous to those of the 
heathen nations, inasmuch as that the personality and 
the form seem to be retained, and the possibility of these 
departed spirits revisiting the earth and holding com- 
mune with the living is admitted. The request of the 
rich man, also, that Lazarus might be sent to warn his 
brethren, yet alive, of his own miserable condition, 
testifies to the existence of these opinions; and it is 
worthy of remark, that the favour is denied, not because 
its performance is impossible, but because the mission 
would be unavailing — a prediction which, it appears to 
me, time has singularly justified. Altogether, the 
notion that in the state entered upon after we leave 



THAT AWAITS US. 229 

this worll, the personality and form are retained, that 
these shades sometimes revisit the earth, and that the 
memory of the past still survives, seems to be universal, 
for it is found to exist amongst all people, savage and 
civilized; and if not founded on observation and 
experience, it becomes difficult to account for such 
unanimity ou a subject which, I think, speculatively 
considered, would not have been productive of such 
results; and one proof of this is, that those who reject 
such testimony and tradition as we have in regard to 
it, and rely only on their own understandings, appear 
to be pretty uniformly led to form opposite conclusions. 
They cannot discern the mode of such a phenomenon; 
it is open to all sorts of scientific objections, and the 
cui bono sticks in their teeth. 

This position being admitted, as I think it must be, 
i^e have but one resource left, whereby to account for 
the universality of this persuasion; which is, that in all 
periods and places, both mankind and womankind, as well 
in health as in sickness, have been liable to a series of 
spectral illusions of a most extraordinary and complicated 
nature, and bearing such a remarkable similarity to each 
other, in regard to the objects supposed to be seen or 
heard, that they have been universally led to the same 
erroneous interpretation of the phenomenon. It is 
manifestly not impossible that this may be the case ; 
and if it be so, it becomes the business of physiologists 
to inquire into the matter, and give us some account 
of it. In the meantime, we may be permitted to take 
the other view of the question, and examine what pro- 
babilities seem to be in. its favour. 

When the body is about to die, that which cannot 
die, and which, to spare words, I will call the soul, 
departs from it — whither? We do not know; but in 
the first place, we have no reason to believe that the 
space destined for its habitation is far removed from 
the earth, since, knowing nothing about it, we are 
equally entitled to suppose the contrary; and in the 



230 THE FUTURE 

next, that which we call distance is a condition that 
merely regards material objects, and of which a spirit is 
qmte independent, just as our thoughts are, which can 
travel from here to China, and back again, in a second 
of time. Well, then, supposing this being to exist 
somewhere, and it is not unreasonable to suppose that 
the souls of the inhabitant of each planet continue to 
hover within the sphere of that planet, to which, for 
anything we can tell, they may be attached by a mag- 
netic attraction, supposing it to find itself in space, free 
of the body, endowed with the memory of the past, 
and consequently with a consciousness of its own deserts, 
able to perceive that which we do not ordinarily per- 
ceive, namely, those who have passed into a similar state 
with itself will it not naturally seek its place amongst 
those spirits which most resemble itself, and with whom, 
therefore, it must have the most affinity] On earth, 
the good seek the good, and the wicked the wicked; 
and the axiom, that "like associates with like," we 
cannot doubt will be as true hereafter as now. " In my 
Father's house there are many mansions," and our in- 
tuitive sense of what is fit and just must needs assure 
us that this is so. There are too many degrees of moral, 
worth and of moral un worth amongst mankind, to 
permit of our supposing that justice could be satisfied 
by an abrupt division into two opposite classes. On 
the contrary, there must be infinite shades of desert, 
and, as we must consider that that which a spirit enters 
into on leaving the body is not so much a place as a 
condition, so there must be as many degrees ef happi- 
ness or suffering as there are individuals, each carrying 
with him his own Heaven or Hell. For it is a vulgar 
tiotion to imagine that Heaven and Hell are places ; 
they are states; and it is in ourselves we must look for 
Doth. When we leave the body, we carry them with 
us; " as the tree falls, so it shall lie." The soul which 
here has wallowed in wickedness or been sunk in sen- 
suality, will not be suddenly purified by the death of 



THAT AWAITS US. 231 

the body; its moral condition remains what its earthly- 
sojourn has trained it to, but its means of indulging its 
propensities are lost. If it has had no godly aspirations 
here, it will not be drawn to God there; and if it has 
so bound itself to the body that it has known no hap- 
piness but that to which the body ministered, it will ha 
incapable of happiness when deprived of that means of 
enjoyment. Here we see at once what a variety of 
conditions must necessarily ensue; how many compara- 
tively negative states there must be betwixt those of 
positive happiness or positive misery. 

We may thus conceive how a soul, on entering upon 
this new condition, must find its own place or state ; if 
its thoughts and aspirations here have been heavenward, 
and its pursuits noble, its conditions will be heavenly. 
The contemplation of God's works, seen not as by our 
mortal eyes, but in their beauty and their truth, and 
ever-glowing sentiments of love and gratitude, and, for 
aught we know, good offices to souls in need, would con- 
stitute a suitable heaven, or happiness for such a being; 
an incapacity for such pleasures, and the absence of all 
others, would constitute a negative state, in which the 
chief suffering would consist in mournful regrets and a 
vague longing for something better, which the untrained 
soul that never lifted itself from the earth knows not 
how to seek ; whilst malignant passions and unquench- 
able desires would constitute the appropriate hell of the 
wicked : for we must remember, that although a spirit 
is independent of those physical laws which are the 
conditions of matter, the moral law, which is inde- 
structible, belongs peculiarly to it — that is, to ihe spirit, 
and is inseparable from it. 

We must next remember, that this earthly body we 
inhabit is more or less a mask, by means of which we 
conceal from each other those thoughts which, if con- 
stantly exposed, would unfit us for living in com- 
munity ; but when we die, this mask falls away, and the 
truth shows nakedly. There is no more disguise ; we 



232 THE FUTURE 

appear as we are, spirits of light or spirits of darkness ? 
and there can be no difficulty, I should think, in con- 
ceiving this, since we know that even our present 
opaque and comparatively inflexible features, in spite 
of all efforts to the contrary, will be the index of the 
mind ; and that the expression of the face is gradually 
moulded to the fashion of the thoughts. How much 
more must this be the case with the fluent and diapha- 
nous body which we expect is to succeed the fleshly 
one ! 

Thus, I think, we have arrived at forming some con- 
ception of the state that awaits us hereafter; the inde- 
structible moral law fixes our place or condition ; 
affinity governs our associations ; and the mask under 
which we conceal ourselves having fallen away, we 
appear to each other as we are ; and I must here 
observe, that in this last circumstance must be com- 
prised one very important element of happiness or 
misery \ for the love of the pure spirits for each other 
will be for ever excited by simply beholding that beauty 
and brightness which will be the inalienable expression 
ot % their goodness ; whilst the reverse will be the case 
with the spirits of darkness ; for no one loves wickedness, 
either in themselves or others, however we may practise 
it. We must also understand, that the words dark and 
light, which in this world of appearance we use meta- 
phorically to express good and evil, must be understood 
literally when speaking of that other world where 
everything will be seen as it is. Goodness is truth, and 
truth is light ; and wickedness is falsehood, and false- 
hood is darkness, and so it will be seen to be. Those 
who have not the light of truth to guide them will 
wander darkly through this valley of the shadow of 
death ; those in whom the light of goodness shines will 
dwell in the light, which is inherent in themselves. 
The former will be in the kingdom of darkness, the 
latter in the kingdom of light. All the records exist- 
ing of the blessed spirits that have appeared, ancient 



THAT A WATTS US. 233 

or modern, exhibit them as robed in light, whilst their 
anger or sorrow is symbolized by their darkness. Now, 
there appears to me nothing incomprehensible in this 
view of the future ; on the contrary, it is the only one 
which I ever found myself capable of conceiving or 
reconciling with the justice and mercy of our Creator. 
He does not punish us, we punish ourselves ; we have 
built up a heaven or a hell to our own liking, and we 
cany it with us. The fire that for ever burns without 
consuming is the fiery evil in which we have chosen our 
part , and the heaven in which we shall dwell will be 
the heavenly peace which will dwell in us. We are our 
own judges and our own chastisers ; and here I must say 
a few words on the subject of that, apparently to us, pre- 
ternatural memory which is developed under certain cir- 
cumstances, and to which I alluded in a former chapter. 
Every one will have heard that persons who have 
been drowned and recovered have had, in what would 
have been their last moments had no means been used 
to revive them, a strange vision of the past, in which 
their whole life seemed to float before them in review ; 
and I have heard of the same phenomenon taking place 
in moments ot impending death in other forms. Now, 
as it is not during the struggle for life, but immediately 
before insensibility ensues, that this vision occurs, it 
must be the act of a moment ; and this renders compre- 
hensible to us what is said by the Seeress of Prevorst, 
and other somnambules of the highest order, namely, 
that the instant the soul is freed from the body, it sees 
its whole earthly career in a single sign ; it knows that 
it is good or evil, and pronounces its own sentence. 
The extraordinary memory occasionally exhibited in 
sickness, where the link between the soul and the body 
is probably loosened, shows us an adumbration of this 
faculty. 

But this self-pronounced sentence we are led to 
hope is not final, nor does it seem consistent with the 
love and mercy of God that it should be so. There 



234 THE FUTURE 

must be few, indeed, who leave this earth fit foi 
heaven ; for although the immediate frame of mind in 
which dissolution takes place is probably very import- 
ant, it is surely a pernicious error, encouraged by jail 
chaplains and philanthropists, that a late repentance 
and a few parting prayers can purify a soul sullied by 
years of wickedness. Would we at once receive such 
an one into our intimate communion and love '? Should 
we not require time for the stains of vice to be washed 
away and habits of virtue to be formed 1 Assuredly 
we should ! And how can we imagine that the purity 
of heaven is to be sullied by that approximation that 
the purity of earth would forbid ? It would be cruel 
to say, irrational to think, that this late repentance is 
of no avail; it is doubtless so far of avail that the 
straining upwards and the heavenly aspirations of the 
parting soul are carried with it, so that when it is free, 
instead of choosing the darkness, it will flee to as much 
light as is in itself; and be ready, through the mercy of 
God and the ministering of brighter spirits, to receive 
more. But in this case, as also in the innumerable 
instances of those who die in what may be called a 
negative state, the advance must be progressive, though 
wherever the desire exists, I must believe that this 
advance is possible. If not, wherefore did Christ, after 
being " put to death in the flesh," go and " preach to 
the spirits in prison" ? It would have been a mockery 
to preach salvation to those who had no hope ; nor 
would the;/, having no hope, have listened to the 
preacher; 

I think these views are at once cheering, encourag- 
ing, and beautiful ; and I cannot but believe, that were 
they more generally entertained and more intimately 
conceived, they would be very beneficial in their effects. 
As I have said before, the extremely vague notions 
people have of a future life, prevent the possibility of 
its exercising any great influence upon the present. 
Th'.i picture, on one side, is too revolting and incon- 
sistent with our ideal? of Divine goodness to be dclibe- 



THAT AWAITS US. 235 

rateiy accepted ; whilst, with regard to the other, ou£ 
feelings somewhat resemble those of a little girl, I once 
knew, who, being told by her mother what w^as to be 
the reward of goodness if she were so happy as to reach 
heaven, put her finger in her eye and began to cry* 
exclaiming, " Oh. mamma ! how tired I shall be sing- 
ing f 

The question which, will now naturally arise, and 
w r hich I am bound to answer, is, how have these views 
been formed? and what is the authority for them 1 ? and 
the answer I have to make will startle many minds.^ 
when I say that they have been gathered from twe 
sources • first, and chiefly, from the state in which those 
i spirits appear to be, and sometimes avow themselves to 
be, who, after quitting the earth, return to it and 
! make themselves visible to the living; and, secondly, 
| from the revelations of numerous somnambules of the 
highest order, which entirety conform, in all cases, 
not only with the revelations of the dead, but with 
each other. I do not mean to imply, when I say 
this, that I consider the question finally settled, as 
to whether somnambules are really clearseers or 
only visionaries; nor that I have by any means esta- 
blished the fact that the dead do sometimes actually 
return; but I am obliged to beg the question for the 
i moment, since whether these sources be pure or impure, 
1 it is from them the information has been collected. It 
lis true, that these views are extremely conformable 
with those entertained by Plato and his school of philo- 
I sophers; and also with those of the mystics of a later 
j age; but the latter certainly, and the former probably,. 
i built up their systems on the same foimdation; and I 
am very far from using the term mystics in the oppro- 
! brious, or at least contemptuous, tone in which it has 
I of late years been uttered in this country; for although 
abouncting in errors, as regarded the concrete, and 
although their want of an inductive methodology led 
them constantly astray in the region of the real, thev* 
were sublime teachers in that of the ideal; and they seem 

Q 



136 THE FUTURE 

1o Lave been endowed with a wonderful insight into 
this veiled department of our nature. 

It may be here objected, that we only admire their 
insight, because, being in entire ignorance of the sub- 
ject of it, we accept raving for revelation ; and that no 
weight can be attached to the conformity of tater dis- 
closures with theirs, since they have no doubt been 
founded upon them. As to the ignorance, it is admitted ; 
and, simply looking at their views, as they stand, they 
have nothing to support them but their sublimity and 
consistency; but as regards the value of the evidence 
afforded by conformity, it rests on very different grounds; 
for the reporters from whom we collect our intelligence 
are, with very few exceptions, those of whom we may 
safely predicate, that they were wholly unacquainted 
with the systems promulgated by the Platonic philo- 
sophers, or the mystics either, nor, in most instances, 
had ever heard of their names; for, as regards that 
peculiar somnambulic state which is here referred to, 
the subjects of it appear to be generally very young- 
people of either sex, and chiefly girls; and as regards 
ghost-seeing, although this phenomenon seems to have 
no connexion with the age of the seer, yet it is not 
usually from the learned or the cultivated we collect 
our coses, inasmuch as the apprehension of ridicule, on 
the one hand, and the fast hold the doctrine of spectral 
illusions has taken of them, on the other, prevent their 
believing in their own senses, or producing any evidence 
they might have to furnish 

And here will be offered another subtle objection, 
namely, that the testimony of such witnesses a» I have 
above described is perfectly worthless; but this I deny. 
The somnambulic states I allude to are such as have 
been developed, not artificially, but naturally ; and often 
Hfider very extraordinary nervous diseases, accompanied 
with catalepsy, and various symptoms far beyond feign- 
ing. Such cases are rare, and, in this country, seem to 
3iav* been very little observed, for doubtless they must 



THAT AWAITS US. 237 

occur, and when they do occur, they are very carefully 
concealed by the families of the patient, and not fol- 
lowed up or investigated as a psychological phenomenon 
by the physician ; for it is to be observed that, with- 
out questioning, no revelations are made; they are not, 
as far as I know, ever spontaneous. I have heard of 
two such cases in this country, both occurring in the 
higher classes, and both patients being young ladies ; 
but, although surprising phenomena were exhibited, 
interrogation was not permitted, and the particulars 
were never allowed to transpire. 

No doubt there are examples of error and examples 
of imposture, so there are in everything where room is 
to be found for them; and I am quite aware of the 
propensity of hysterical patients to deceive, but it is 
for the judicious observers to examine the genuineness 
of each particular instance; and it is perfectly certain 
and well established by the German physiologists and 
psychologists, who have carefully studied the subject, 
that there are many above all suspicion. Provided, 
then, that the case be genuine, it remains to be deter- 
mined how much value is to be attached to the revela- 
tions, for they may be quite honestly delivered, and 
yet be utterly worthless — the mere ravings of a dis- 
ordered brain ; and it is here that conformity becomes 
important, for I cannot admit the objection that the 
simple circumstance of the patients being diseased in- 
validates their evidence so entirely as to annul even 
the value of their unanimity, because, although it is 
not logically impossible that a certain state of nervous 
derangement should occasion all somnambules, of the 
class in question, to make similar answers, when inter- 
rogated, regarding a subject of which in their normal 
condition they know nothing, and on which they have 
never reflected, and that these answers should be not 
only consistent, but disclosing far more elevated views 
than are evolved by minds of a very superior order 
which have reflected on it very deeply — I say, although 



2m 8 THE FUTURE 

this is not logically impossible, it will assuredly be 
found, by most persons, an hypothesis of much more 
difficult acceptance than the one I propose; namely, 
that whatever be the cause of the effect, these patients 
are in a state of clear-seeing, wherein they have " more 
than mortal knowledge:" that is, more knowledge than 
mortals possess in their normal condition : and it must 
not be forgotten, that we have some facts, confessed by 
all experienced physicians and physiologists, even in 
this country, proving th< there are states of disease in 
which preternatural faculties have been developed, such 
as no theory has yet satisfactorily accounted for. 

But Dr. Passavant, who has written a very philo- 
sophical work on the subject of vital magnetism and 
clear-seeing, asserts, that it is an error to imagine that 
the ecstatic condition is merely the product of disease. 
He says, that it has sometimes exhibited itself in per- 
sons of very vigorous constitutions, instancing Joan of 
Arc, a woman, whom historians have little understood, 
and whose memory Voltaire's detestable poem has ridi- 
culed and degraded, but who was, nevercheless, a great 
psychological phenomenon. 

The circumstance, too, that phenomena of this kind 
are more frequently developed in women than jn m^n, 
and that they are merely the consequence of her greater 
nervous irritability, has been made another objection to 
them — an objection, however, which Dr. Passavant con- 
siders founded on ignorance of the essential difference 
between the sexes, which is not merely a pr^sical but 
a psychological one. Man is more productive than 
receptive, in a state of perfectibility, both attributes 
would be 3qually developed in him ; but in thi* terres- 
trial life only imperfect phases of the entire sum of the 
soul's faculties are so. Mankind are but children, male 
or female, young or old : of man, in ins totality, we 
have but faint adumbrations, here and there. 

Thus th^ ecstatic woman will be more frequently a 
seer, instinctive and intuitive ; man, a doer and a 



THAT AWAITS US. 239 

worker ; and a3 all genius is a degree of ecstasy or 
clear-seeing, we perceive the reason wherefore in man 
it is more productive than in woman, and that our 
greatest poets and artists, in all kinds, are of the 
former sex, and even the most remarkable, women pro- 
duce but little in science or art ; whilst, on the other 
hand, the feminine instinct, and tact, and intuitive 
seeing of truth, is frequently more sure than the ripe 
and deliberate judgment of man : and it is hence that 
solitude and such conditions as develop the passive or 
receptive at the expense of the active, tend to produce 
this state, and to assimilate the man more to the nature 
of the woman ; whilst in her they intensify these dis- 
tinguishing characteristics : and this is also the reason 
that simple and child-like people and races are the most 
frequent subjects of these phenomena. 

It is only necessary to read Mozart's account of his 
own moments of inspiration, to comprehend, not only 
the similarity, but the positive identity of the ecstatic 
state with the state of genius in activity. k * When all 
goes well with me," he says, " when I am in a carriage, 
or walking, or when I cannot sleep at night, the 
thoughts come streaming in upon me most fluently. 
Whence, or how, is more than I can tell. What comes, 

I hum to myself, as it proceeds then follows 

the counter-point and the clang of the different instru- 
ments, and if I am not disturbed, my soul is fixed, and 
the thing grows greater, and broader, and clearer; and 
I have it all in my head, even when the piece is a long 
one, and I see it like a beautiful picture, not heeding 
the different parts in succession, as they must be played, 
but the whole at once. That is the delight 1 The 
composing and the making is like a beautiful and vivid 
dream, but this hearing of it, is the best of all." 

What is this but clear-seeing, backwards and for- 
wards, the past and the future? The one faculty i% 
not a whit more surj)rising and incomprehensible than 
the other, to those w r ho possess neither, only we see 



& 



240 THE FUTURE 

the material product of one, and therefore believe in 
it. But, as Passavant justly says, these coruscations 
belong not to genius exclusively : they are latent in all 
men. In the highly gifted, this divine spark becomes 
a flame to light the world withal; but even in the 
coarsest and least developed organizations, it may, and 
does, momentarily break forth. The germ of the highest 
spiritual life is in the rudest, according to its degree, 
as well as in the highest form of man we have yet 
seen; he is but a uiore imperfect type of the race, i? 
whom this spiritual germ has not unfolded itself. 

Then, with respect to our second source of infor- 
mation, I am quite aware that it is equally difficult 
to establish its validity ; but there are a few argu- 
ments in our favour here, too. In the first place, as 
Dr Johnson says, though all reason is against us, all 
tradition is for us ; and this conformity of tradition is 
surely of some weight, since I think it would be diffi- 
cult to find any parallel instance of a universal tra- 
dition that was entirely without a foundation in truth ; 
for with respect to witchcraft, the belief in which is 
equally universal, we now know that the phenomena 
were generally facts, although the interpretations put 
upon them were fables. It may certainly be objected 
that this universal belief in ghosts only arises from the 
universal prevalence of spectral illusions, but, if so, as 
I have before observed, these spectral illusions become 
a subject of very curious inquiry, for, in the first place, 
they frequently occur under circumstances the least 
likely to induce them, and to people whom we should 
east expect to find the victims of such a malady ; and. 
in the second, there is a most remarkable conformity 
here, too, not only between the individual cases occur- 
ring amongst all classes of persons who had never ex- 
hibited the slightest tendency to nervous derangement 
or somnambulism, but also between these and the reve- 
lations of the somnambules. In short, it seems to me 
that life is reduced to a mere phantasmagoria, if spec- 



THAT AWAITS US. 2 4 1 1 

tral illusions are so prevalent, so complicated in their 
nature, and so delusive as they must be, if all the- 
instances of ghost-seeing that come before us are to be 
referred to that theory. How numerous these are, I 
confess myself not to have had the least conception, 
till my attention was directed to the inquiry; and that 
these instances have been equally frequent in all periods 
mid places, we cannot doubt, from the variety of per- 
sons that have given in their adhesion, or at Jeast that 
have admitted, as Addison did, that he coidd not refuse 
the universal testimony in favour of the re- appearance 
of the dead, strengthened by that of many credible 
persons with whom he was acquainted. Indeed, the- 
testimony in favour of the facts has been at all periods- 
too strong to be wholly rejected, so that even the 
materialists, like Lucretius and the elder Pliny, find; 
themselves obliged to acknowledge them, whilst, on the 1 
other hand, the extravagant admissions that are de- 
manded of us by those who endeavour to explain t&em 
away, prove that their disbelief rests on no more solids 
foundation than their own prejudices. I acknowledge^ 
all the difficulty of establishing the facts, such difficul- 
ties as indeed encompass few other branches of inquiry;; 
but I maintain that the position of the opponents i$= 
still worse, although, by their high tone, and their 
contemptuous laugh, they assume to have taken up one- 
that, being fortified by reason, is quite impregnable, 
forgetting that the wisdom of man is pre-eminently 
•■ foolishness before God," when it wanders into this 
region of unknown things. Forgetting, also, Caat they 
are just serving this branch of inquiry, as theii pre- 
decessors, whoni they laugh at, did physiology ; con- 
cocting their systems out of their own orpins, instead 
of the responses of nature ; and with .-till more rash- 
:. ess and presumption, this department of her kingdom 
being more inaccessible, more incapable of demonstra- 
tion, and more entirely beyond our control; for these 
spirits will not u come when we do call them ;" and, 1 



242 THE FUTURE 

confess, it often surprises me to hear the very shallow 
nonsense that very clever men talk upon the subject, 
and the inefficient arguments they use to disprove what 
they know nothing about. I am quite conscious that 
the facts I shall adduce are open to controversy ; I can 
"bring forward no evidence that will satisfy a scientific 
mind ; but neither are my opponents a whit better for 
iiiied. All I do hope to establish is, not a proof, but 
a presumption; and the conviction I desire to awaken 
in. people's minds is, not that these things are so, but 
that they may be so, and that it is well worth our while 
to inquire whether they are or not. 

It will be seen, that these views of a future state 
are extremely similar to those of Isaac Taylor, as sug- 
gested in Ins physical theory of another life — at least 
as far as he has entered upon the subject — and it is 
natural that they should be so, because he seems also 
to have been a convert to the opinion, that " the dead 
do sometimes break through the boundaries that hem in 
the ethereal crowds; and if so, as if by trespass, may 
in single instances infringe upon the ground of common 
corporeal life." 

Let us now fancy this dispossessed soul entering on 
its new career, amazed, and no more able than when 
it was in the body to accommodate itself at once to 
conditions of existence for which it was unprepared. 
If its aspirations had previously been heavenward, these 
conditions would not be altogether new, and it would 
speedily find itself at home in a sphere in which it 
had dwelt before; for, as I have formerly said, a spirit 
nnut be where its thoughts and affections are, and the 
soul, "whose thoughts and affections had been directed to 
heaven, would only awaken after death into a more per- 
fect and unclouded heaven. But imagine the contrary of 
all this. Conceive what this awakening must be to an 
earth-bound spirit — to one altogether unprepared for its 
new home — carrying no light within it — floating in the 
dim obscure — clinging to the earth, where all his afteo- 



THAT AWAITS US. 243 

tions were garnered up; for where its treasure is, 
there shall it be also. It will find its condition evil, 
more or less, according to the degree of its moral light 
or darkness, and in proportion to the amount of the 
darkness will be its incapacity to seek for light. ISTow, 
there seems nothing offensive to our notions of the 
Divine goodness in this conception of what awaits us 
when the body dies. It appeal's to me, on the contrary, 
to offer a more comprehensible and coherent view than 
any other that has been presented to me; yet, the state 
I have depicted is very much the Hades of the Greeks 
and Romans. It is the middle state, on which all 
souls enter, a state in which there are many mansions — - 
that is, there are innumerable states — probably not 
permanent, but ever progressive or retrograde; for we 
cannot conceive of any moral state being permanent, 
since we know perfectly well that ours is never so: it 
is always advancing or retroceding. When we are not 
improving, we are deteriorating; and so it must neces- 
sarily be with us hereafter. 

Now, if we admit the probability of this middle state, 
we have removed one of the great objections which are 
made to the belief in the re-appearance of the dead; 
namely, that the blest are too happy to return to the 
earth, and that the wicked have it not in their power to 
do so. This difficulty arises, however, very much from 
the material ideas entertained of Heaven and Hell — 
the notion that they are places instead of states. I am 
told that the Greek word Hades is derived from aides 
invisible; and that the Hebrew word Scheol, which ha.* 
the same signification, also implies a state, not a place; 
since it may be interpreted into desiring, longing, 
asking, praying. These words in the Septuagint, arc 
translated- by grave, death, or hell; but previously to 
the Reformation, they seem to have borne their original 
meaning; that is, the state into which the soul entered 
at the death of the body. It was probably to get 
rid of the purgatory of the Roman Church, which had 



24i THE FUTURE 

doubtless become the source of many absurd notions 
and corrupt practices, that the doctrine of a middle 
state or Hades was set aside; besides which, the honest 
desire for reformation in all reforming churches, being 
alloyed by the odium theologicu n, the purifying besctn 
is apt to take too discursive a sweep, exercising less 
modesty an 1 discrimination than might be desirable, 
and thus not uncommonly wiping away truth and false- 
hood together. 

Dismissing the idea, therefore, that Heaven and Hell 
are places in which the soul is imprisoned, whether in 
bliss or woe, and, supposing that, by a magnetic rela- 
tion, it may remain connected with the sphere to 
which it previously belonged, we may easily conceive 
that, if it have the memory of the past, the more 
entirely sensuous its life in the body may have been, 
the closer it will cling to the scene of its former joys; 
or ; even if its sojourn on earth were not a period of 
joy, but the contrary, still, if it have no heavenward 
aspirations, it will find itself, if not in actual woe, yet 
aimless, objectless, and out of a congenial element. It 
has no longer the organs whereby it perceived, communi- 
cated with, and enjoyed the material world and its 
pleasures. The joys of Heaven are not its joys; we 
might as well expect a hardened prisoner in Newgate, 
consorting with others as hardened as himself, to melt 
into ecstatic delight at the idea of associating with 
the innocent and pure ! How helpless and inefficient 
such a condition seems! And how natural it is to 
imagine that, under such circumstances, there might 
be awakened a considerable desire to manifest itself to 
those yet living in the flesh, if such a manifestation be 
possible ! And what right have we, in direct contra- 
diction to all tradition, to assert that it is not? We 
may raise up a variety of objections from physical 
science, but we cannot be sure that these are applicable 
to the case; and of the laws of spirit we know very 



THAT AWAITS US. 24$ 

little, since we are only acquainted with it as circum- 
scribed, confined, and impeded in its operations by 
the body; and whenever such abnormal states occur as 
enable it to act with any degree of independence, man, 
under the dominion of his all-sufficient reason, denies 
and disowns the facts. That the manifestation of a 
spirit to the living, whether seen or heard, is an excep- 
tion, and not the rule, is evident; for, supposing the 
desire to exist at all, it must exist in millions and 
millions of instances which never take effect. The 
circumstances must therefore, no doubt, be very pecu- 
liar, as regards both parties in which such a manifesta- 
tion is possible; what these are we have very little 
means of knowing, but, as far as we do know, we are 
led to conclude that a certain magnetic rapport or 
polarity constitutes this condition, whilst, at the same 
time, as regards the seer, there must be what the 
prophet called the "opening of the eye," which may, 
perhaps, signify the seeing of the spirit without the aid 
of the bodily organ, a condition which may temporarily 
occur to any one under we know not what influence, 
but which seems, to a certain degree, hereditary in 
some families. 

The following passage is quoted from Sir "William 
Hamilton's edition of Dr. Reid's works, published 
in 1846:— 

" No man can show it to be impossible to the Supreme 
Being to have given us the power of perceiving external 
objects, without any such organs," i.e., our organs of 
sense. u We have reason to believe that when we put 
off these bodies, and all the organs belonging to tlieio, 
our perceptive powers shall rather be improved than 
destroyed or impaired. We have reasoo to believe that 
the Supreme Being perceives everything in a much 
more perfect manner than we do, without bodily organs. 
We have reason to believe that there are other created 

eings endowed with powers of perception more perfect 



246 THE FUTURE 

and more extensive than ours, without any such organs 
as we find necessary/' and Sir "William Hamilton adds 
the following note: — 

" However astonishing, it is now proved beyond all 
rational doubt, that in certain abnormal states of the 
nervous organism, perceptions are possible through 
other than fche ordinary channels of the senses." 

Of the existence of this faculty in nature, any one 
who chooses may satisfy himself by a very moderate 
degree of trouble, provided he undertake the investiga- 
tion honestly; and this being granted, another objection, 
if not altogether removed, is considerably weakened. 
I allude to the fact, that in numerous reported cases of 
ghost-seeing, the forms were visible to only one person, 
even though others were present, which, of course, 
rendered them indistinguishable from cases of spectral 
illusion, and indeed unless some additional evidence be 
afforded, they must remain so still, only we have gained 
thus much, that this objection is no longer unan- 
swerable; for whether the phenomenon is to be referred 
to a mutual rapport, or to the opening of the spiritual 
eye, we comprehend how one may see what others do 
not. But really, if the seeing depended upon ordinary 
vision, I cannot perceive that the difficulty is insur- 
mountable; for we perfectly well know that some people 
are endowed with an acutcness of sense, or power of 
perception, which is utterly incomprehensible to others, 
for without entering into the disputed region of ciear- 
see^r.g', everybody must have met with instances of those 
strange antipathies to certain objects, accompanied by 
an extraordinary capacity for perceiving their j)resence- 
which remain utterly unexplained. rTot to speak o 
cats and hares, where some electrical effects might be 
conceived, I lately heard of a gentleman who fainted if 
he were introduced in^o a room where there was a 
raspberry tart; and that tnere have been persons endowed 
with a faculty for discovering the proximity of water 
and metals, even without the aid of the divining rod — 



THAT AWAITS US. 247 

which latter marvel seems to be now clearly establishes 
as an electrical phenomenon — will scarcely admit of 
further doubt. A very eminent person, with whom I 
am acquainted, possessing extremely acute olfactory 
powers, is the subject of one single exception. He is 
insensible to the odour of a bean-field, however potent: 
but it would surely be very absurd in him to deny that 
the bean-field emits an odour, and the evidence of the 
majority against him is too strong to admit of his doing 
so. Now we have only the evidence of a minority with 
regard to the existence of certain faculties not generally 
developed, but surely it argues great presumption to 
dispute their possibility. We might, I think, with 
more appearance of reason, insist upon it that my friend 
must be misaken, and that he does smell the bean-field; 
for we have the majority against him there, most de- 
cidedly. The difference is, that nobody cares whether 
the odour of the bean-field is perceptible or not: but if 
the same gentleman asserted that he had seen a ghost- 
beyond all doubt, his word would be disputed. 

Though we do not know what the conditions are that 
develop the faculty which St. Paul calls the discerning 
of spirits, there is reason to believe that the approach 
of death is one. I have heard of too many instances 
of this kind, where the departing person has been in the 
entire possession of his or her faculties, to doubt that 
in our last moments we are frequently visited by those 
who have gone before us, and it being admitted hy all 
physiologists, that preteniatual faculties are sometimes 
exhibited at this period, we can have no right tc say 
that "the discerning of spirits" is not one of tliem. 

There is an interesting story recorded by Beaumont, 
in his Ci World of Spirits," and quoted by Dr Hibbert 
with the remark, that no reasonable doubt can be 
placed on the authenticity of the narrative, as it was 
drawn up by the Bishop of Gloucester from the recital 
of the young lady's father; and I mention it here, not 
for any singularity attending it, but first because its 



248 THE FUTURE 

authenticity is admitted, and next on account of the 
manner in which, so much being granted, the fact is 
attempted to be explained away. 

" Sir Charles Lee, by his first lady, had only one 
daughter, of which she died in childbirth, and when 
she was deal, her sister, the Lady Everard, desired to 
have the education of the child, and she was very well 
educated till she was marriageable, and a match was 
concluded for her with Sir W. Parkins, but was then 
prevented in an extraordinary manner. Upon a Thurs- 
day night, she thinking she saw a light in her cham- 
ber after she was in bed, knocked for her maid, who 
presently came to her, and she asked, ' Why she left a 
candle burning in her room?' The maid answered, that 
she had ' left none, and that there was none but - 
she had brought with her at that time;' then she .said 
it must be the fire; but that her maid told her vas 
quite out, adding, she believed it was only a dream, 
whereupon Miss Lee answered it might be so, and 
composed herself again to sleep. But about two of the 
clock she was awakened again, and saw the apparition 
of a little woman between her curtains and her pillow, 
who told her she was her mother, that she was happy, 
and that by twelve of the clock that day she should be 
with her. Where upoi: she knocked again for her maid, 
called for her clothes, and when she was dressed went 
into her closet and came not out again till nine, and 
then brought out with her a letter sealed to her father, 
carried it to her aunt, the Lady Everard, told her what 
hau happened, and desired that as soon as she was dead 
it might be sent, to him. The lady thought she was 
suddenly fallen mad, and therefore sent presently awav 
to Chelmsford for a physician and surgeon, who both 
came immediately, but the physician could discern no 
indication of what the lady imagined, or of any indis- 
position of her body ; notwithstanding the lady would 
needs havener let blood, which was done accordingly; and 
when the young woman had patiently let them do what 



THAT AWAITS US. 249 

they would with her, she desired that the chaplain 
might be called to read prayers; and when prayers 
were ended, she took her guitar and psalm-book, and 
sat down upon a chair without arms, a) id played and 
sung so melodiously and admirably that her music- 
mast or, who was then there, admired at it ; and near 
the stroke of twelve she rose and sat herself down in a 
great chair with arms, and presently fetching a strong 
breathing or two she immediately expired, and was so 
suddenly cold as was much wondered at by the phy- 
sician and surgeon. She died at Waltham, iu Essex, 
three miles from Chelmsford, and the letter was sent 
to Sir Charles, at his house in Warwickshire; but he 
was so afflicted at the death of his daughter that he 
came not till she was buried; but when he came, he 
caused her to be taken up and to be buried with her 
mother at Edmonton, as she desired in her letter." 

This circumstance occurred in the year 1662, and is, 
as Dr. Hibbert observes, "one of the most interesting 
ghost stories on record;'* yes he insists on placing it 
under the category of spectral illusions, upon the plea 
that let the physician, whose skill he arraigns, say what 
he would, her death within so short a period proves 
that she must have been indisposed at the time she 
saw the vision, and that probably " the languishing 
female herself might have unintentionally contributed 
to the more strict verification of the ghost's prediction," 
' eonc^dir^ with these words, "all that can be said of 
it is, that the coincidence was a fortunate one; for with- 
out it the story would, probably, never have met with 
a recorder," &c. &c. 

Now, I ask if this is a fair way of treating any fact 
transmitted to us on authority, which the objector 
himself admits to be perfectly satisfactory, more espe- 
cially as the assistants on the occasion appear to have 
been quite as unwilling to believe in the supernatural 
interpretation of it as Dr. II. could have been himself 
had he been present; for what more could he have 



230 THE FUTURE 

done than conclude the young lady to be mad and 
bleed her? — a line of practice which is precisely what 
would be followed at the present time; and which 
proves thab they were very well aware of the sensuous 
illusions produced by a disordered state of the nervous 
system; and with respect to his conclusion that the 
" languishing female" contributed to the verification of 
the prediction, we are entitled to ask, where is the 
proof chat she was languishing'? A very clever watch- 
maker once told me that a watch may go perfectly well 
for years and at length stop suddenly, in consequence 
of an organic defect in its construction, which only be- 
comes perceptible even to the eye of a watchmaker 
when this effect takes place ; and we do know that many 
persons have suddenly fallen dead immediately after 
declaring themselves in the best possible health ; and we 
have therefore no right to dispute what the narrator 
implies, namely, that there were no sensible indications 
of the impending catastrophe. 

There either was some organic defect or derangement 
in this lady's physical economy which rendered her 
death inevitable at the hour of noon on that particular 
Thursday, or there was not. If there were, and her cer- 
tain death was impending at that hour, how came she 
acquainted with the fact? Surely it is a monstrous 
assumption to say that it was "a fortunate coinci- 
dence," when no reason whatever is given us for 
concluding that she felt otherwise than perfectly well? 
If, on the contrary, we are to take refuge in the sup- 
position that there was no death impending, and that 
she onlj died of the fright, how came she — feeling per- 
fectly well, and in this case we have a right to conclude 
being perfectly well — to be the subject of such an 
extraordinary spectral illusion? And if such spectral 
illusions can occur to people in a good normal state of 
health, does it not become very desirable to give us 
some clearer theory of them than we have at present? 
JBut there is a third presumption to which the sceptical 



THAT AWAITS US. 251 

may have recourse in order to get rid of this well- 
established, and therefore very troublesome fact, namely, 
that Miss Lee was ill, although unconscious of it her- 
self, and indicating no symptoms that could guide her 
physician to an enlightened diagnosis; and that the 
proof of this is to be found in the occurrence of the 
spectral illusion, and that this spectral illusion so im- 
pressed her, that it occasioned the precise fulfilment of 
the imaginary prediction, an hypothesis which appears 
to me to be pressing very hard on the spectra! illusion; 
for it is first called upon to establish the fact of an 
existing indisposition of no slight character, of which 
neither patient nor physician were aware; and it is next 
required to kill the lady with unerring certainty at the 
hour appointed, she being, according to the only autho- 
rity we have for the story, in a perfectly calm and 
composed state of mind ! for there is nothing to be 
discerned in the description of her demeanour but an 
entire and willing submission to the announced decree, 
accompanied by that pleasing exultation which appears 
to me perfectly natural under the circumstances; and 
I do not think that anything we know of human vitality 
can justify us in believing that life can be so easily ex- 
tinguished, But to such straits people are reduced 
who write with a predetermination to place their facts 
on a Procrustean bed, till they have fitted them into 
their own cherished theory. 

In the above-recorded case of Miss Lee. the motive 
for the visit is a sufficient one ; but one of the com- 
monest objections to such narrations is the insigni- 
ficance of the motive when any communication is made, 
or there being apparently no motive at all, when none 
is made. "Where any previous attachment has sub- 
sisted, we need seek no further for an impelling causa; 
but, in other cases, tins impelling cause must pro- 
bably be sought in the earthly rapport still subsist- 
ing and the urgent desire of the spirit to manifest itself 
and establish a communication where its thoughts and 



252 THE FUTURE 

aiit'ectioiis still reside; and we must consider that, pro- 
vided there be no law of God prohibiting its revisiting 
the earth, which law would of course supersede all 
other laws, then, as I have before observed, where its 
thoughts and affections are, it must be also. What is it 
but our heavy material bodies that prevents us from 
being where our thoughts are ? But the being near us, 
and the manifesting itself to us, are two very diiferent 
things, the latter evidently depending on conditions we 
do not yet understand. As I am not writing a book 
on vital magnetism, and there are so many already 
accessible to everybody who chooses to be informed on 
it, I shall not here enter into the subject of magnetic 
rapport, it being, I believe, now generally admitted. 
* eept by the most obstinate sceptics, that such a rela- 
tion can be established betwixt two human beings. In 
what this relation consists is a more difficult question ; 
but the most rational view appears to be that of a mag- 
netic polarity, which is attempted to be explained by 
two theories — the dynamical and the ethereal : the one 
viewing the phenomena as simply the result of the 
transmission of forces; the other hypothetising an ether., 
which pervades all space, and penetrates all substance, 
maintaining the connexion betwixt body and soul, and 
betwixt matter and spirit. To most minds, tin's last 
hypothesis will be the most comprehensible; on which 
account, since the result would be the same in either 
case, we may adopt it for the moment ; and there wil] 
then be less difficulty in conceiving that the influence 
or ether of every being or thing, animate or inanimate, 
must extend beyond the periphery of its own termina- 
tions : and that this must be eminently the osuhj where 
there is animal life, the nerves forming the readiest 
conductors for this supposed imponderable. The proofs 
of the existence of this ether are said to 1>< manifold, 
and more especially to be found in the circumstance, 
that every created thing sheds an atmosphere around 
it, after its kind ; this atmosphere becoming, under cer- 



THAT AWAITS US. 253- 

tain conditions, perceptible or even visible, as in the 
instances of electric fish, &c., the fascinations ot serpents, 
the influence of human beings upon plants, and vice 
versa ; and, finally, the phenomena of animal magnetism, 
and the undoubted fact, to which I myself can bear 
witness, that the most ignorant girls, when in a state 
of somnambulism, have been known to declare that 
they saw their magnetiser surrounded by a halo of light; 
and it is doubtless this halo of light, that, from their 
being strongly magnetic men, has frequently been 
observed to surround the heads of saints and eminently 
holy persons : the temperament that produced the inter- 
nal fervour causing the visible manifestation of it. By 
means of this ether or force, a never-ceasing motion and 
an inter-communication is sustained betwixt all created 
things, and betwixt created things and their Creator, 
who sustains them and creates them ever anew, by the 
constant exertion of his Divine will, of which this is 
the messenger and the agent, as it is betwixt our will 
and our own bodies ; and without this sustaining will, 
so exerted, the whole would fall away, dissolve and die; 
for it is the life of the universe. That all inanimate 
objects emit an influence, greater or less, extending be- 
yond their own peripheries, is established by their €;ffects 
on various susceptible individuals, as well as on soni- 
nambules; and thus there exists a universal polarity 
and rapport, which is however stronger betwixt cer tain 
organisms ; and every being stands in a varying relation 
of positive and negative to every other. 

With regard to these theories, however, where there 
is so much obscurity, even in the language, I do not 
wish to insist; more especially as I am fully aware that 
this subject may be discussed in a manner much more 
congruous with the dynamical spirit of the philosophy 
of this century: but, in the meanwhile, as either of the 
causes alluded to is capable of producing the effects, 
we adopt the hypothesis of an all-pervading ether, as 
the one most easily conceived. 



254 THE FUTURE 

Admitting this then to be the case, we begin to have 
some notion of the modus operandi, by which a spirit 
may manifest itself to us, whether to our interna^ 
universal sense, or even to our sensuous organs; and we 
also find one stumbling block removed out of our way, 
namely, that it shall be visible or even audible to one 
person and not to another, or at one time and not at 
another; for by means of this ether or force, we are in 
communication with all spirit, as well as with all 
matter; and since it is the vehicle of will, a strong 
exertion of will may reinforce its influence to a degree 
far beyond our ordinary conceptions: but man is not 
acquainted with his own power, and has consequently 
no faith in his own will: nor is it, probably, the design 
of Providence, in ordinary cases, that he should. He 
cannot therefore exert it; if he could, he " might remove 
mountains." Even as it is, we know something of the 
power of will in its effect on other organisms as ex- 
hibited by certain strong-willed individuals; also in 
popular movements, and more manifestly in the in- 
fluence and far-working of the magnetiser on his 
patient. The power of will, like the seeing of the 
spirit, is latent in our nature, to be developed in God's 
own time; but meanwhile, slight examples are found, 
shooting up here and there, to keep alive in man the 
consciousness that he is a spirit, and give evidence of 
his divine origin. 

What especial laws may appertain to this supersen- 
suous domain of nature, of course we cannot know, and 
it is therefore impossible for us to pronounce how far a 
spirit is free, or not free, at all times to manifest itself; 
and we can, therefore, at present, advance no reason for 
these manifestations not being the rule instead of the 
exception. The law which restrains more frequent in- 
tercourse may, for anything we know to the contrary, 
have its relaxations and its limitations, founded in 
nature; and a rapport with, or the power of acting on, 



THAT AWAITS US. 255 

particular individuals, may arise from causes of which we 
are equally ignorant. Undoubtedly, the receptivity of 
the corporeal being is one of the necessary conditions, 
whilst, on the part of the incorporeal, the will is at 
once the cause and the agent that produces the effect; 
whilst attachment, whether to individuals or to the lost 
joys of this world, is the motive. The happy spirits in 
whom this latter impulse is weak, and who would float 
away into the glorious light of the pure moral Jaw, 
would have little temptation to return; and at least 
would only be brought back by their holy affections or 
desire to serve mankind. The less happy, clinging to 
their dear corporeal life, would hover nearer to the 
earth; and I do question much whether the often- 
ridiculed idea of the mystics, that there is a moral 
weight, as well as a moral darkness, be not founded in 
truth. We know very well that even these substantial 
bodies of ours. are. to our own sensations (and, very 
possibly, if the thing could be tested, would prove to 
be in fact), lighter or heavier, according to the lightness 
or heaviness of the spirit — terms used figuratively, but 
perhaps capable of a literal interpretation; and thus 
the common idea of up and down, as applied to Heaven 
or Hell, is founded in truth, though not mathematically 
o rrect, we familiarly using the words up and down 
to express farther or nearer, as regards the planet an 
which w^e live. 

Experience seems to justify this view of the case; 
ibr, supposing the phenomena I am treating of to be 
facts, and not spectral illusions, all tradition shows 
that the spirits most frequently manifested to man, 
have been evidently not in a state of bliss: whilst, 
when bright ones appeared, it has been to serve him; 
and hence the old persuasion that they were chiefly 
the wicked that haunted the earth, and hence ? also, the 
foundation for the belief that not only the murderer, 
but the murdered, returned to vex the living; and the 



256 THE FUTURE 

just view, that in taking away life the injury is not 
confined fco the body, but extends to the surprised and 
angry soul, which is — 

Out oft", even in the blossom of its sin, 
CTnhousel'd, disappointed, inmneal'd; 
No reckoning made, but sent to its accoun* 
With all its imperfections on its head." 

It seems also to be gathered from experience, that 
those whose lives have been rendered wretched, "rest 
not in their graves,' 1 at least, several accounts I have 
met with, as well as tradition, countenance this view; 
and this may originate in the fact, that cruelty and 
ill-usage frequently produce very pernicious effects oil 
the mind of the sufferer, in many instances inspiring, 
not resignation or a pious desire for death, but resent- 
ment, and an eager longing for a fair share of earthly 
enjoyment. Supposing, also, the feelings and preju- 
dices of the earthly life to accompany this dispossessed 
soul — for, though the liberation from the body inducts 
it into certain privileges inherent in spirit, its moral 
qualities remain as they were — as the tree falls, so it shall 
lie — supposing, therefore, that these feelings, and pre- 
judices, and recollections of its past life, are carried with 
it, we see, at once, why the discontented spirits of the 
heathen world could not rest till their bodies Lad ob- 
tained sepulture, why the buried money should toj/ment 
the soul of the miser, and why the religious opinions, 
whatever they may have been, believed in the flesh 
seem to survive with the spirit. There are two re- 
markable exceptions, however, and these are precisely 
such as might be expected. Those who, during their 
corporeal life, have not believed in a future state, return 
to warn their friends against the same error. " There 
is another world," said the brother of the young lady 
who appeared to her in the Cathedral of York, on the 



THAT AWAITb ITS. 257 

day lie was drowned; and there are several similar 
instances recorded. The belief that this life " is the 
be-all and the end-all here," is a mistake that death 
must instantly rectify. The other exception I allude to 
is, that that toleration, of which, unfortunately, we see 
much loss than is desirable in this world? seems happily 
to prevail in the next; for, amongst the numerous 
narrations I meet with in which the dead have returned 
to ask the prayers or the services of the living, they do 
not seem, as will be seen by-and-bye, to apply by any 
means exclusively to members of their own church. 
The attrait which seems to guide their selection of in- 
dividuals, is evidently not of a polemical nature. The 
pure worship of God, and the inexorable moral law, are 
what seem to prevail in the other world, and not the 
dogmatic theology which makes so much of the misery 
of this. 

There is a fundamental truth in all religions; the 
real end of all is morality, ho^ ever the means may be 
mistaken, and however corrupt, selfish, ambitious, and 
sectarian the mass of their teachers may, and generally 
do, become; whilst the effect of prayer, in whatever 
form, or to whatever ideal of the Deity it may be 
offered, provided that offering be honestly and earnestly 
made, Is precisely the same to the supplicant and in its 
result?. 

I have reserved the following story, which is not a 
fiction, but the relation of an undoubted and welh 
attested fact, till the present chapter, as being par- 
ticularly applicable to this branch of my subject. 

Some ninety years ago, there flourished in Glasgow a 
club of young men, which, from the extreme profligacy 
of its members and the licentiousness of the?~ ****gies, 
was commonly called the Hell Club. Besides their 
nightly or weekly meetings, they held one grand 
annual saturnalia, in which each tried to excel the 
other in <lrunkenness and blasphemy; and on thes 



258 THE FUTURir 

occasions there was no star amongst them whose lurid 
light was more conspicuous than that of young Mr, 
Archibald B — , who, endowed with brilliant talents and 
a handsome person, had held out great promise in his 
' boyhood, and raised hopes, which had been completely 
frustrated by his subsequent reckless dissipations 

One morning, after returning from this annual fes- 
tival, Mr. Archibald B., having retired to bed, dreamt 
the following dream : — 

He fancied that he himself was mounted on a fa- 
vourite black horse, that he always rode, and that he 
was proceeding towards his own house, then a country 
seat embowered by trees, and situated upon a hill, now 
entirely built over and forming part of the city, when 
a stranger, whom the darkness of night prevented his 
distinctly discerning, suddenly seized his horse's rein, 
saying, " You must go with me !" 

" And who are you ?" exclaimed the young man, 
with a vollev of oaths, whilst he struggled to free him- 
self. 

" That you will see by-and-bye," returned the other, 
in a tone that excited unaccountable terror in the 
youth, who, plunging his spurs into his horse, attempted 
to fly. But in vain : however fast the animal flew, the 
stranger was still beside him, till at length, in his despe- 
rate efforts to escape, the rider was thrown, but instead 
of being dashed to the earth, as he expected, he found 
himself falling — falling — falling still, as if sinking into 
the bowels of the earth. 

At length, a period being put to this mysterious 
descent; he found breath to inquire of his companion, who 
was still beside him, whither they were going : -*' Where 
am 1 1 where are you taking me?" he exclaimed. 

" To Hell 1" replied the stranger, and immediately 
interminable echoes repeated the fearful sound, " Tc 
HeU! to Hell! to Hell!" 

At length a light appeared, which soon increased to 



THAT AWAITS US. 259 

a blaze; but, instead of the cries, and groans, and la- 
mentings the terrified traveller expected, nothing met 
his ear but sounds of music, mirth, and jollity; and he 
found himself at the entrance of a superb building, far 
exceeding any he had seen constructed by human 
hands. Within, too, what a scene! No amusement, 
employment, or pursuit of man on earth, but was here 
being carried on with a vehemence that excited his 
unutterable amazement. " There the young and lovely 
still swam through the mazes of the giddy dance! 
There the panting steed still bore his brutal rider 
through the excitement of the goaded race ! There, 
over the midnight bowl, the intemperate still drawled 
the wanton song or maudlin blasphemy ! The gam- 
bler plied for ever his endless game, and the slaves of 
Mammon toiled through eternity their bitter task;, 
whilst all the magnificence of earth paled before that 
which now met his view!" 

He soon perceived that he w^as amongst old acquaint- 
ances whom he knew r to be dead, and each, he observed,, 
was pursuing the object, whatever it was, that had 
formerly engrossed him ; when, finding himself relieved 
of the presence of his un welcome conductor, he ven- 
tured to address his former friend, Mrs. D., whom he 
saw sitting, as had been her wont on earth, absorbed 
at loo, requesting her to rest from the game, and intro- 
duce him to the pleasures of the place, which appeared 
to him to be very miUke what he had expected, and, 
indeed, an extremely agreeable one. But, with a cry 
of agony, she answered, that there was no rest m Hell: 
that they must ever toil on at those very pleasures; 
and innumerable voices echoed through the inter- 
minable vaults, " There is no rest in Hell I" Whilst, 
throwing open their vests, each disclosed in his bosom 
an ever-burning flame! These, they said, were the 
pleasures of Hell ; then choice on earth was now theis* 
inevitable doom! In the midst of the horror this 



260 THE FUTURE 

scene inspired, his conductor returned, and, at his 
earnest entreaty, restored him again to earth ; but, as 
he quitted him, he said, u Remember ! in a year and a 
day we meet again !" 

At this crisis of his dream the sleeper awoke, fever- 
ish and ill; and, whether from the effect of the dream, 
or of his preceding orgies, he was so unwell as to be 
obliged to keep his bed for several days, during which 
period he had time for many serious reflections, which 
terminated in a resolution to abandon the club and his 
licentious companions altogether. 

He was no sooner well, however, than they flocked 
around him, bent on recovering so valuable a member of 
their society; and having wrung from him a confession 
of the cause of his defection, which, as may be supposed, 
appeared to them eminently ridiculous, they soon con- 
trived to make him ashamed of his good resolutions. 
He joined them again, resumed his former course of 
life, and when the annual saturnalia came round, he 
found himself with his glass in his hand, at the table, 
when the president, rising to make the accustomed 
speech, began with saying, " Gentlemen : this being 
leap-year, it is a year and a day since our last anni- 
versary," &c. &c. The words struck upon the young 
man's ear hke a knell ; but, ashamed to expose his 
weakness to the jeers of his companions, he sat out the 
feast, plying himself with wine even more liberally 
than usual, in order to drown his intrusive thoughts; 
till, in the gloom of a winter's morning he mounted his 
horse to ride home. Some hours afterwards, the horse 
was found with his saddle and bridle on, quietly grazing 
hy the road-side, about half-way between the city and 
Mr. B.'s house; whilst a few yards off lay the corpse of 
his master. 

Now. as I have said, in introducing this story, it is 
no fiction : the circumstance happened as here related. 
An account of it was published at the time, but the 



THAT AWAITS US. 261 

copies were bought up by the family. Two or three 
however were preserved, and the narrative has been re- 
irnnted. 

The dream is evidently of a symbolical character, 
.and accords m a very remarkable degree with the con- 
clusions to be drawn from the sources I have above 
indicated. The interpretation seems tc be, that the 
evil passions and criminal pursuits which have been 
indulged in here become our curse hereafter. I do not 
mean to imply that the ordinary amusements of life 
are criminal — -far from it. There is no harm in dancing, 
nor in playing at loo, either; but if people make these 
things the whole business of their lives, and think of 
nothing else, cultivating no higher tastes, nor forming 
no higher aspirations, what sort of preparation are they 
making for another world? I can hardly imagine that 
anybody wo old wish to be doing these things to all 
eternity, the more especially that it is most frequently 
ennui that drives their votaries into excesses, even here; 
but if they have allowed their minds to be entirely 
absorbed in such frivolities and trivialities, surely tney 
cannot expect that God will, by a miracle, suddenly 
obliterate these tastes and inclinations, and inspire them 
with others better suited to their new condition ! It 
was their business to do that for themselves whilst here; 

j and such a process of preparation is not in the slightest 
degree inconsistent with the enjoyment of all manner 

| of harmless pleasures; on the contrary, it gives the 
greatest zest to them; for a life in whicii there is 
nothing serious, in which all is play and diversion, is, 
beyond all doubt, next to a life of active, persevering 
wickedness, the saddest thing under the sun ! But let 
everybody remember, that we see in nature no violent 
transitions; everything advances by almost insensible 
steps, at least everything that is to endure; and therefore 
to expect, that because they have quitted their fleshb- 
foodies, which they always knew were but a temporary 



2G2 



THE FUTURE THAT AWAITS US. 



appurtenance, doomed to perish and decay, they them- 
selves are to undergo a sudden and miraculous conversion 
and purification, which is to elevate them into fit com- 
jpanions for the angels of Heaven, and the Blessed that 
have passed away, is surely one of the most inconsistent, 
unreasonable, and pernicious errors that mankind eve* 
indulged in. 



263 



CHAPTER XL 

THE POWER OF WILL. 

The power, be it what it may, whether of dressing up aa 
ethereal visible form, or of acting on the constructive 
imagination of the seer, which would enable a spirit to 
appear " in his habit as he lived," would also enable 
him to present any other object to the eye of the seer, 
or himself in any shape, or fulfilling any function he 
willed; and we thus find in various instances, especially 
those recorded in the Seeress of Prevorst, that this is 
the case. We not only see changes of dress, but we 
see books, pens, writing materials, &c. in their hands ; 
and we find a great variety of sounds imitated : which 
soimds are frequently heard, not only by those who 
have the faculty of " discerning of spirits," as St. Paul 
says, but also by every other person on the spot; for 
the hearing these sounds does not seem to depend on 
any particular faculty on the part of the auditor, except 
it be in the case of speech. The hearing the speech of 
a spirit, on the contrary, appears in most instances to 
be dependent on the same conditions as the seeing it. 
which may possibly arise from there being, in fact, no 
audible voice at all, but the same sort of spiritual com- 
munication which exists between a magnetiser and Ins 
patient, wherein the sense is conveyed without words. 

This imitating of sounds I shall give several instances 
of in a future chapter. It is one way in which a death 
is frequently indicated. I could quote a number of 
examples of this description, but shall confine myself to 
two or three. 



284 THE POWER OF WILL. 

Mrs. D. being one night in her kitchen, preparing to 
go to bed, after the house was shut up, and the rest of 
the family retired, she was startled by hearing a foot 
coming along the passage, which she recognised dis- 
tinctly to be that of her father, who she was quite cer- 
tain was not in the iouse. It advanced to the kitchen- 
door, and she waited with alarm to see if the door was 
to opei. ; but it did not, and she heard nothing more. 
On Uie following day, she found that her father had 
died at that time; and it was from her niece I heard 
the circumstance. 

A Mr. J. S., belonging to a highly respectable family, 
with whom I am acquainted, having been for some 
time in declining health, was sent abroad for change of 
air. During his absence, one of his sisters, having 
been lately confined, an old servant of the family was 
sitting half asleep in an arm-chair, in a room adjoining 
that in which the lady slept, when she was startled by 
hearing the foot of Mr. J. S. ascending the stairs. It 
was easily recognisable, for, owing to his constant con- 
finement to the house, in consequence of his infirm 
health, his shoes were always so dry that their creaking 
was heard from one end of the house to the other. So 
far surprised out of her recollection as to forget he was 
not in the country, the good woman started up, and 
rushing out with her candle in her hand to light him, 
she followed the steps up to Mr. J. S.'s own bedchamber, 
never discovering that he was not preceding her till 
she reached the door. She then returned, quite amazed, 
and, having mentioned the occurrence to her mistress, 
they noted the date, and it was afterwards ascer- 
tained that the young man had died at Lisbon on that 
night. 

Mrs. F. tells me that, being one morning, at eleven 
o'clock, engaged in her bed-room, she suddenly heard a 
strange, indescribable,' sweet, but unearthly sound, 
which apparently proceeded from a large open box, 
which stood near her. She was seized with an awe 



THE POWER OF WILL* 265 

and a horror which there seemed nothing to justify, 
and fled up stairs to mention the circumstance, which 
she could not banish from her mind. At that precise 
day and hour, eleven o'clock, her brother was drowned. 
The news reached her two days afterwards. 

Instances of this kind are so well known, that it is 
unnecessary to multiply them further. With respect 
to the mode of producing these sounds, however, I 
should be glad to say something more definite if I 
could, but, from the circumstance of their being heard 
not only by one person, who might be supposed to be 
'n lapport, or whose constructive imagination might be 
Jveted upon, but by any one who happens to be within 
bearing, we are led to conclude that the sounds are 
1 eally reverberating through the atmosphere. In the 
strange cases recorded in " The Seeress of Prevorst," 
although the apparitions were visible only to certain 
persons, the sounds they made were audible to all; and 
the seeress says they are produced by means of the 
nerve-spirit, which I conclude is the spiritual body of 
St. Paul, and the atmosphere, as we produce sound by 
means of our material body and the atmosphere. 

In this plastic power of the spirit to present to the 
eye of the seer whatever object it wills, we find the 
explanation of such stories as the famous one of Ficinus 
and Mercatus, related by Baronius in his annals. 
These two illustrious friends, Michael Mercatus and 
Marcellinus Ficinus, after a long discourse on the nature 
of the soul, had agreed that, if possible, whichever died 
first should return and visit the other. Some time 
afterwards, whilst Mercatus was engaged in studv at an 
early hour in the morning, he suddenly heard the noise 
of a horse galloping in the street, which presently 
stopped at his door, and the voice of his friend Finicus 
exclaimed, "Oh, Michael! Oh, Michael! Vera sunt 
Ma/ Those things are true!" Whereupon Mercatus 
hastily opened his window, and espied his friend Ficinus 
on a white steed. He called after him; but he gal- 



266 THE POWER OF WILL. 

loped away out of his sight. On sending to Florence 
to inquire for Ficinus, he learnt that he had died 
about that hour he called to him. From this period to 
that of his death, Mercatus abandoned all profane 
studies, and addicted himself wholly to divinity. Ba • 
ronius lived in the sixteenth century, and even Dr. 
Ferrier and the spectral illusionists admit that thf 
authenticity of this story cannot be disputed, although 
they still claim it for their own. 

Not very many years ago, Mr. C, a staid citizen of 
Edinburgh, whose son told me the story, was one day 
riding gently up Corstorphin-hill, in the neighbourhood 
of the city, when he observed an intimate friend of his 
own, on horseback also, immediately behind him, so he 
slackened his pace to give him an opportunity of join- 
ing company. Finding he did not come up so quickly 
as he should, he looked round again, and was astonished 
at no longer seeing him, since there was no side road 
into which he could have disappeared. He returned 
home, perplexed at the oddness of the circumstance, 
when the first thing he learnt was, that, during his 
absence, this friend had been killed by his horse falling 
in Candlemaker's row. 

I have heard of another circumstance, which occurred 
some years ago in Yorkshire, where, I think, a former's 
wife was seen to ride into a farm-yard on horseback, 
but could not be afterwards found or the thing ac- 
counted for, till it was ascertained that she had died at 
that period. 

There are very extraordinary stories extant in all 
countries, of persons being annoyed by appearances in the 
shape of different animals, which one would certainly be 
much disposed to give over altogether to the illusionists, 
though at the same time it is very difficult to reduce 
some of the circumstances under that theory ; especially, 
one mentioned, p. 307, of my " Translation of the 
Seeress of Prevor3t." If they are not illusions, they 
are phenomena to be attributed either to this plastic 



THE POWER OF WILL. 267 

power, or to that magico-magnetic influence in which 
the belief in lycanthropy and other strange transforma- 
tions has originated. The muititudes of unaccount- 
able stories of this description recorded in the witch 
trials, have long furnished a subject of perplexity to 
everybody who was sufficiently just to human nature to» 
conclude, that there must have been some strange 
mystery at the bottom of an infatuation that prevailed 
so universally, and in which so many sensible, honest, 
and well-meaning persons were involved. Till of late 
years, when some of the arcana of animal or vital mag- 
netism have been disclosed to us, it was impossible for 
us to conceive by what means such strange conceptions 
could prevail ; but since we now know, and many of us 
have witnessed, that all the senses of a patient are fre- 
quently in such subjection to his magnet iser, that they- 
may be made to convey any impressions to the brain 
that the magnetiser wills, we can, without much diffi- 
culty, conceive how this belief in the power of trans- 
formation took its rise ; and we also know how a 
magician could render himself visible or invisible at 
pleasure. I have seen the sight or hearing of a patient 
taken away and restored by Mr. Spencer Hall, in a 
manner that could leave no doubt on the mind of the 
beholder : the evident paralysis of the eye of the patient 
testifying to the fact. Monsieur Eusebe Salverte, the 
most determined of rationalistic sceptics, admits that 
we have numerous testimonies to the existence of an 
art. which he confesses himself at some loss to explain, 
although the opposite quarters from which the accounts 
of it reach us render it difficult to imagine that the 
historians have copied each other. The various trans- 
formations of the gods into eagles, bulls, and so forth, 
'have been set down as mere mythological fables; but 
they appear to have been founded on an art, known in 
all quarters of the world, which enabled the magician 
to take on a form which was not his own, so as to deceive 
his nearest and dearest friends. In the history of 



268 THE POWER OP WILL. 

Gengis Khan there is mention of a city which he 
conquered, " in which dwelt," says Suidas, " certain 
men, who possessed the secret of surrounding them- 
selves with deceptive appearances, insomuch that they 
were able to represent themselves to the eyes of 
people quite different to what they really were." Saxo 
Grammaticus, in speaking of the traditions connected 
with the religion of Odin, says, " that the magi were 
very expert in the art of deceiving the eyes, being able 
to assume, and even to enable others to assume, the 
forms of various objects, and to conceal their real 
aspects under the most attractive appearances." John 
of Salisbury, who seems to have drawn his information 
from sources now lost, says, that " Mercury, the most 
expert of magicians, had the art of fascinating the eyes 
of men to such a degree, as to render people invisible, 
or make them appear in forms quite different to those 
they really bore." We also learn, from an eye-witness, 
that Simon, the magician, possessed the secret of making 
another person resemble him so perfectly, that every 
eye was deceived. Pomponius Mela affirms, that the 
Druiclesses of the island of Sena could transform them- 
selves into any animal they chose, and Proteus has 
become a proverb by his numerous metamorphoses. 

Then, to turn to another age and another hemi- 
sphere, we find Joseph Acosta, who resided a long time 
in Peru, assuring us that there existed at that period 
magicians, who had the power of assuming any form 
they chose. He relates that the predecessor of Mon- 
tezuma, having sent to arrest a certain chief, the latter 
successively transformed himself into an eagle, a tiger, 
and an immense serpent; and so eluded the envoys, till, 
having consented to obey the king's mandate, he was 
carried to court and instantly executed. 

The same perplexing exploits are confidently attri- 
buted to the magicians of the West Indies; and there 
were two men eminent amongst the natives, the o^ie 
called Gomez and the other Gonzalez, who possessed 



THE POWER OP WILL. 26& 

this art in an extraordinary degree; bnt both fell 
victims to the practice of it, being shot during the 
period of their apparent transformations. 

It is also recorded that Nanuk, the founder of the 
Sikhs, who are not properly a nation, but a religious 
sect, was violently opposed by the Hindoo zealots; and 
at one period of his career, when he visited Vatala the 
Yogiswaras, who were recluses, that by means ol cor- 
poreal mortifications were supposed to have acquired a 
command over the powers of nature, were so enraged 
against him, that they strove to terrify him by their 
enchantments, assuming the shapes of tigers and serpents. 
But they could not succeed, for Nanuk appears to have 
been a real philosopher, who taught a pure theism, and 
inculcated universal peace and toleration. His tenets, 
'ike the tenets of the founders of all religions, have 
been since corrupted by his followers. We can scarcely 
avoid concluding, that the power by which these feats 
were performed is of the same nature as that by which 
3 magnetiser persuades his patient that the water he 
Irinks is beer, or the beer wine, and the analogy be- 
; wixt it, and that by which I have supposed a spirit 
to present himself, with such accompaniments as he 
desires, to the eye of a spectator, is evident. In 
those instances where female figures are seen with 
children in their arms, the appearance of the child we 
must suppose to be produced in this manner. 

Spirits of darkness, however, cannot, as I have 
before observed, appear as spirits of light; the moral 
nature cannot be distinguished. On one occasion, when 
Frecleriea Hauffe asked a spirit if he could appear in 
what form he pleased he answered, No; that if he had 
lived as a brute, he should appear as a brute; u as our 
dispositions are, so we appear to you." 

This plastic power is exhibited in those instances I 
have related, where the figure has appeared dripping 
with water, indicating the kind of death that had been 
sneered j and also in such cases as of Sir Robert H. E. ? 



270 THE POWER OF WILL. 

where the apparition showed a wound in his breasts 
There are a vast number of similar ones on record in 
all countries; but I will here mention one which I re- 
ceived from the lips of a member of the family con- 
cerned, wherein one of the trivial actions of life was 
curiously represented. 

Miss L. lived in the country with her three brothers, 
to whom she was much attached, as they were to her. 
These young men, who amused themselves all the 
morning with their out-door pursuits, were in the 
habit of coming to her apartments most days before 
dinner, and conversing with her till they were sum- 
moned to the dining-room. One day, when two of 
them had joined her as usual, and they were chatting 
cheerfully over the fire, the door opened, and the third 
came in, crossed the room, entered an adjoining one. 
took off his boots, and then, instead of sitting down 
beside them as usual, passed again through the roomy 
and went out, leaving the door open, and they saw him 
ascend the stairs towards his own chamber, whither 
they concluded he was gone to change his dress. These 
proceedings had been observed by the whole party: 
they saw him enter, saw him take off his boots, saw 
him ascend the stairs, continuing the conversa- 
tion without the slightest suspicion of anything ex- 
traordinary. Presently afterwards the dinner was 
announced ; and as this young man did not make his ap» 
pearance, the servant was desired to let him know they 
were waiting for him. The servant answered, that he 
had not come in yet; but being told that he would find 
him in his bedroom, he went up stairs to call him. 
He was, however, not there, nor in the house; nor were 
his boots to be found where he had been seen to take 
them off. Whilst they were yet wondering what could 
have become of him, a neighbour arrived to break the 
news to the family, that their beloved brother had been 
killed whilst hunting, and that the only wish he ex- 
pressed was, that he could live to see his sister ence more. 



THE POWER OP WILL. 271 

I observed in a former chapter, whilst speaking of 
wraiths, how very desirable it would be to ascertain 
whether the phenomenon takes place before or after 
the dissolution of the bond betwixt soul and body; I 
have since received the most entire satisfaction on that 
head, so far as the establishing the fact, that it does 
sometimes occur after the dissolution. Three cases 
have been presented to me from the most undoubted 
authority, in which the wraith w^as seen at intervals 
varying from one to three days after the decease of the 
person whose image it was ; very much complicating tht 
difficulty of that theory which considers these pheno- 
mena the result of an interaction, herein the vital 
principle of one person is able to influence another 
within its sphere, and thus make the organs of that other 
the subjects of its will; a magical power, by the way, 
which far exceeds that we possess over our own organs. 
There is here, however, where death has taken place, no 
living organism to produce the effect, and the pheno- 
menon becomes, therefore, purely subjective — a mere 
spectral illusion, attended by a coincidence, or ei*e the 
influence is that of the disembodied spirit; and those 
who will take the trouble of investigating this subject, 
will And that the number of these coincidences would 
violate any theory of probabilities, to a degree that 
precludes the acceptance of the former explanation. 
I do not see, therefore, on what we are to fall back, 
except it be the willing agency of the released spirit, 
unless we suppose that the operation of the will of the 
dying person travelled so slowly, that it did not take 
effect till a day or two after it was exerted, a hypo- 
thesis too extravagant to be admitted. 

Dr. Passavant, whose very philosophical work on this 
occult department of nature is well worth attention, 
considers the fact of these appearances far too well 
established to be disputed; and he enters into some 
curious disquisitions with regard to what the Germans 
call far- working, or the power of (acting on bodies at a 



272 THE POWER OP WILL. 

distance, without any sensible conductor, instancing the 
case of a gymnotus, which was kept alive for four 
months in Stockholm, and which, when nrged by 
hunger, could kill fish at a distance without contact, 
adding, that it rarely miscalculated the amount of the 
shock necessary to its purpose. These, and all such 
effects, are attributed by this school of physiologists to 
the supposed imponderable, the nervous ether I have 
elsewhere mentioned, which Dr. P. conceives in cases of 
somnambulism, certain sicknesses, and the approach of 
death, to be less closely united to its material con- 
ductors the nerves, and therefore capable of being 
more or less detached and acting at a distance, espe- 
cially on those with whom relationship, friendship, or 
love, establish a rapport, or polarity; and he observes 
that intervening substances, or distance, can no more 
impede this agency than they do the agency of mineral 
magnetism. And he considers that we must here seek 
for the explanation of those curious so-called coinci- 
dences of pictures falling, and clocks and watches 
stopping at the moment of a death, which we frequently 
find recorded. 

With respect to the wraiths, he observes that the 
more the ether is freed, as by trance, or the immediate 
approach of death, the more easily the soul sets itself in 
rapport with distant persons ; and that thus it either 
acts magically, so that the seer perceives the real actual 
body of the person that is acting upon him, or else that 
he sees the ethereal body, which presents the perfect 
form of the fleshly one, and which, whilst the organic- 
life proceeds, can be momentarily detached and appear 
elsewhere, and this ethereal body he holds to be the 
fundamental form, of which the external body is only 
the copy, or husk. 

I confess I much prefer this theory of Dr. Pasaavant's, 
which seems to me to go very much to the root of the 
matter. We have here the " spiritual body " of St. 
Paul, and the " nerve spirit " of the somnambulists; and 



THE POWER OP WILL. 273 

its magical effects are scarcely more extraordinary, if 
properly considered, than its agency on our own material 
bodies. It is this ethereal body which obeys the intel- 
ligent spirit within, and which is the intermediate agent 
betwixt the spirit and the fleshly body. "We here find 
the explanation of wraiths : whilst persons are in 
trance, or deep sleep, or comatose, this ethereal body 
can be detached and appear elsewhere; and I think 
there can be no great difficulty for those who can follow 
us so far, to go a little further, and admit that this 
ethereal body must be indestructible, and survive the 
death of the material one; and that it may, therefore,, 
not only become visible to us under given circumstances,, 
but that it may also produce effects bearing some 
similarity to those it was formerly capable of, since, in 
acting on our bodies during life, it is already acting on 
a material substance, in a manner so incomprehensible 
to us, that we might well apply the word magical when 
speaking of it, were it not that custom has familiarized 
us to the marvel. 

It is to be observed, that this idea of a spiritual bodjr 
is one that pervaded all Christendom in the earlier and 
purer ages of Christianity, before priestcraft — and by- 
priestcraft I mean the priestcraft of all denominations — » 
had overshadowed and obscured, by their various sec- 
tarian heresies, the pure teaching of Jesus Christ. 

Dr. Ennemoser mentions a curious instance of this 
actio in dlstans i or far- working. It appears that Van 
Helmont, having asserted that it was possible for a man 
to extinguish the life of an animal by the eye alone 
(oculis intentis), Rousseau, the naturalist, repeated the 
experiment when in the East, and in this manner killed 
several toads; but on a subsequent occasion, whilst 
trying the same experiment at Lyons, the animal, on 
finding it could not escape, fixed its eyes immovably 
on him, so that he fell into a fainting fit, and was 
thought to be dead. He was restored by mean3 of 
theriacum and viper-powder — a truly homoeopathic 



274 THE POWER OF WILL. 

remedy! However, we here probably see the origin 
of the universal popular persuasion, that there is some 
mysterious property in the eye of a toad; and also of 
the so-called superstition of the evil eye. 

A very remarkable circumstance occurred some 
years ago at Kirkcaldy, when a person, for whose truth 
and respectability I can vouch, was living in the family 
of a Colonel M. at that place. The house they inha- 
bited was at one extremity of the town, and stood in 
a sort of paddock. One evening, when Colonel M. 
had dined out, and there was nobody at home but Mrs. 
M., her son (a boy about twelve years old), and Ann, 
the maid (my informant), Mrs. M. called the latter, and 
directed her attention to a soldier who was walking 
backwards and forwards in the drying-ground behind 
the house, where some linen was hanging on the lines. 
She said she wondered what he could be doing there, 
and bade Ann fetch in the linen, lest he should purloin 
any of it. The girl, fearing he might be some ill- 
disposed person, hesitated; Mrs. M., however, promising 
to watch from the window that nothing happened to 
her, she went; but still apprehensive of the man's in- 
tentions, she turned her back towards him, and hastily 
pulling down the linen, she carried it into the house; 
he continuing his walk the while, as before, taking no 
notice of her whatever. Ere long the Colonel returned, 
and Mrs. M. lost no time in taking him to the window 
to look at the man, saying she could not conceive what 
he could mean by walking backwards and forwards 
there all that time; whereupon Ann added, jestingly, 
" I think it's a ghost, for my part !" Colonel M. said, 
H he would soon see that," and calling a large dog that 
was lying in the room, and accompanied by the little 
boy, who begged to be permitted to go also, he stepped 
out and approached the stranger; when, to his surprise, 
the dog, which was an animal of high courage, instantly 
flew back, and sprung through the glass door, which 
the Colonel had closed behind him, shivering the panes 
all around 



THE POWER OF WILL. 275 

The Colonel, meantime, advanced and challenged the 
man repeatedly, without obtaining any answer or notice 
whatever ; till at length, getting irritated, he raised a 
weapon with which he had armed himself, telling him 
he " must speak, or take the consequences," when just 
as he was preparing to strike, lo ! there was nobody 
there ! The soldier disappeared, and the child sunk 
senseless to the ground. Colonel M. lifted the boy in 
his arms, and as he brought him into the house, he said 
to the girl, " You are right, Ann. It ivas & ghost I" 
He was exceedingly impressed with this circumstance, 
and much regretted his own behaviour, and also the 
ha vino: taken the child with him, which he thought had 
probably prevented some communication that was in- 
tended. In order to repair, if possible, these errors, 
he went out every night, and walked on that spot for 
some time, in hopes the apparition would return. At 
length he said that he had seen and had conversed with 
it, but the purport of the conversation he would never 
communicate to any human being, not even to his wife. 
The effect of this occurrence on his own character was per- 
ceptible to everybody that knew him. He became grave 
and thoughtful, and appeared like one who had passed 
through some strange experience. The abovenamed 
Ann H., from whom I have the account, is now a 
middle-aged woman. When the circumstance occurred 
she was about twenty years of age. She belongs to a 
highly-respectable family, and is, and always has been, 
a person of unimpeachable character and veracity. 

In this instance, as in several others I meet with, 
the animal had a consciousness of the nature of the 
appearance, whilst the persons around him had no sus- 
picion of anything unusual. In the following singular 
case, we must conclude that attachment counteracted 
this instinctive apprehension. A farmer, in Argyle- 
bhire, lost his wife, and a few weeks after her decease, 
as he and his son were crossing a moor, they saw her 
sitting on a stone, with their house-dog lying at her 
feet, exactly as he used to do when she was alive. As 



276 THE POWER OF WILL. 

they approached the spot the woman vanished, and 
supposing the dog must be equally visionary they 
expected to see him vanish also; when, to their sur- 
prise, he rose and joined them, and they found it was 
actually the very animal of flesh and blood. As the 
place was at least three miles from any house, they 
could not conceive what could have taken him there. 
It was probably the influence of her will 

The power of will is a phenomenon that has been 
observed in all ages of the world, though of late years 
much less than at an earlier period; and, as it was then 
more frequently exerted for evil than good, it was 
looked upon as a branch of the art of black magic, 
whilst, the philosophy of it being unknown, the devil 
was supposed to be the real agent, and the witch, or 
wizard, only his instrument. The profound belief in 
the existence of this art is testified by the twelve 
tables of Rome, as well as by the books of Moses, and 
those of Plato, &c. It is extremely absurd to suppose 
that all these statutes were erected to suppress a crime 
which never existed ; and with regard to these witches 
and wizards we must remember, as Dr. Ennemoser 
justly remarks, that the force of will has no relation 
to the strength or weakness of the body ; witness the 
extraordinary feats occasionally performed by feeble 
persons under excitement, &c. ; and although these 
witches and Y>izards vrere frequently weak, decrepit 
people, they either believed in their own arts, or else 
that they had a friend or coadjutor in the devil, who 
was able and willing to aid them. They, therefore, did 
not doubt their own power, and they had the one great 
requisite, faith. To ioi/l and to believe, was the expla- 
nation given by the Marquis de Puysegur of the cures 
he performed; and this unconsciously becomes the 
recipe of all such men as Greatrix, the Shepherd of 
Dresden, and many other wonder-workers, and hence 
we see why it is usually the humble, the simple, and 
the child-like, the solitary, the recluse, nay, the igno- 



THE POWER OF WILL, 277 

Tant, who exhibit traces of these occult faculties; foi 
he who cannot believe, cannot will, and the scepticism 
of the intellect disables the magician; and hence we 
see, also, wherefore in certain parts of the world and 
in certain periods of its history, these powers and prac- 
tices have prevailed. They were believed in because 
they existed; and they existed because they were be- 
lieved in. There was a continued interaction of cause 
and effect- — of faith and works. People who look su- 
perficially at these things delight in saying that the 
more the witches were persecuted the more they 
abounded; and that when the persecution ceased we 
heard no more of them. Naturally; the more they 
were persecuted the more they believed in witchcraft 
and in themselves ; when persecution ceased, and men 
in authority declared that there was no such thing as 
witchcraft or witches, they lost their faith; and with 
it that little sovereignty over nature that that faith 
had conquered. 

Here we also see an explanation of the power attri- 
buted to blessings and curses. The word of God is 
creative, and man is the child of God, made in his 
image; who never outgrows his childhood, and is often 
most, a child when he thinks himself the wisest, for 
" the wisdom of this world," we cannot too often repeat, 
" is foolishness before God" — -and being a child, his 
faculties are feeble in proportion; but though limited in 
amount, they are divine in kind, and are latent in all of 
us; still shooting up here and there, to amaze and per- 
plex the wise, and make merry the foolish, who have 
nearly all alike forgotten their origin and disowned 
their birthright. 



278 



CHAPTER XII. 

TROUBLED SPIRITS. 

A very curious circumstance, illustrative of the power 
of will, was lately narrated to me by a Greek gentleman, 
to whose uncle it occurred. His uncle, Mr. M., was, 
some years ago travelling in Magnesia, with a friend, 
when they arrived one evening at a caravanserai, where 
they found themselves unprovided with anything to eat. 
It was therefore agreed, that one should go forth and 
endeavour to procure food; and the friend offering to 
undertake the office, Mr. M. stretched himself on the 
floor to repose. Some time had elapsed and his friend 
had not yet returned, when his attention was attracted 
by a whispering in the room; he looked up, but saw 
nobody, though still the whispering continued, seeming 
to go round by the wall. At length it approached him; 
but though he felt a burning sensation on his cheek, 
and heard the whispering distinctly, he could not catch 
the words. Presently he heard the footsteps of his 
.friend, and thought he was returning; but though they 
appeared to come quite close to him, and it was perfectly 
light, he still saw nobody; then he felt a strange sensa- 
tion — an irresistible impulsion to rise; he felt lrimself 
drcuwn up, across the room, out of the door, down the 
stairs; he must go, he could not help it, to the gate of 
the caravanserai, a little farther, and there he foimd the 
dead body of his friend, who had been suddenly assailed 
and cut down by robbers, unhappily too abundant in 
the neighbourhood at that period. 

We here see the desire of the spirit to communicate 



TROUBLED SPIRITS. 279 

his fate to the survivor; the imperfection of the rapport 
or the receptivity, which prevented a more direct 
intercourse; and the exertion of a magnetic influence, 
which Mr. M. could not resist, precisely similar to that 
of a living magnetiser over his patient. 

There is a story extant in various English collections, 
the circumstances of which are said to have occurred 
Vbout the middle of the last century, and which I shall 
Here mention, on account of its similarity to the one 
that follows it. 

Dr. Bretton, who was late in life appointed rector of 
Ludgate. lived previously in Herefordshire, where he 
married the daughter of Dr. Santer, a woman of great 
piety and virtue. This lady died; and one day as a 
former servant of hers, to whom she had been attached, 
and who had since married, was nursing her child in 
her own cottage, the door opened, and a lady entered 
so exactly resembling the late Mr, Bretton in dress and 
appearance, that she exclaimed, " If my mistress were 
not dead, I should think you were she !" Whereupon, 
the apparition told her she was so, and requested her to 
go with her, as she had business of importance to com 
municate. Alice objected, being very much frightened, 
and entreated her to address herself rather to Dr. 
Bretton; but Mrs. B. answered, tlmt she had endeavoured 
to do so, and had been several times in his room for that 
pier pose, but he was still asleep, and she had no power to 
do more towards awakening him than once uncover his 
feet Alice then pleaded that she had nobody to leave 
with her child, but Mrs. B. promising that the child 
should sleep till her return, she at length obeyed the 
summons, and, having accompanied the apparition into 
a large field, the latter bade her observe how much she 
measured off with her feet, and, having taken a con- 
siderable compass, she made her go and tell her brother 
that all that portion had been wrongfully taken from the 
poor by their father, and that he must restore it to them, 
adding, that she was the more concerned about it ; since 



280 TROUBLED SPIRITS. 

her name had been used in the transaction. Alice then 
asking how she should satisfy the gentleman of the truth 
of her mission, Mrs. B. mentioned to her some circum- 
stances known only to herself and this brother; she 
then entered into much discourse with the woman, and 
gave her a great deal of good advice, till hearing the 
sound of horse-bells, she said, " Alice, I must be seen 
by none but yourself," and then disappeared. Where- 
upon. Alice proceeded to Dr. Bretton, who admitted 
that he had actually heard some one walking about his 
room, in a way he could not account for. On mention- 
ing the thing to the brother, he laughed heartily, till 
Alice communicated the secret which constit^'. d her 
credentials, upon which he changed his tone, and declared 
himself ready to make the required restitution. 

Dr. Bretton seems to have made no secret of this 
story, but to have related it to various persons; nnd T 
think it is somewhat in its favour, that it exhibits a 
remarkable instance of the various degrees of receptivity 
of different individuals, where there was no suspicion 
of the cause, nor no attempt made to explain why Mrs. 
Bretton could not communicate her wishes to her 
husband as easily as to Alice. The promising that the 
child should sleep, was promising no more than many a 
magnetiser could fulfil. There are several curious stories 
extant, of lame and suffering persons suddenly recover- 
ing, who attributed their restoration to the visit of an 
apparition which had stroked their limbs, &c. ; and 
these are the more curious from the fact, that the} 
occurred before Mesmer's time, when people in genera] 
knew nothing of vital magnetism. Dr. Binns quotes 
the case of a person named Jacob Olaffson, a resident 
in some small island, subject to Denmark, who after 
lying very ill for a fortnight, was found quite well, 
which he accounted for, by saying, that a person in 
shining clothes had come to him in the night, and stroked 
him with his hand, whereupon he was presently healed. 
But the stroking is not alwavs necessary, since * 



TROUBLED SPIRITS. 281 

know that the eye and the will can produce the same 
-effect. 

The other case I alluded to, as similar to that of 
Mrs. Bretton, occurred in Germany, and is related by 
Dr. Kernel*. 

The late Mr. L. St. — , he says, quitted this world 
with an excellent reputation, being at the time super- 
intendent of an institution for the relief of the poor, 
in B — , His son inherited his property, and in ac- 
knowledgment of the faithful services of his father's 
old housekeeper, he took her into his family and esta- 
blished her in a country house, a few miles from B — , 
which formed part of his inheritance. She had been 
settled there but a short time, when she was awakened 
in the night, she knew not how, and saw a tall, hag- 
gard-looking man in her room, who was rendered 
visible to her by a light that seemed to issue from him- 
self. She drew the bed-clothes over her head ; but as 
this apparition appeared to her repeatedly, she became 
so much alarmed that she mentioned it to her master, 
begging permission to resign her situation. He, how- 
ever, laughed at her, told her it must be all imagina- 
tion, and promised to sleep in the adjoining apartment, 
in order that she might call him whenever this terror 
seized her. He did so; but when the spectre returned, 
she was so much oppressed with horror that she found 
it impossible to raise her voice. Her master then ad- 
vised her to inquire the motive of its visits. Tins she 
did; whereupon, it beckoned her to follow, which, after 
some struggles, she summoned resolution to do. It 
then led the way down some steps to a passage, where 
it pointed out to her a concealed closet, which it signi- 
fied to her, by signs, she should open. She represented 
that she had no key, whereupon, it described to her, 
in sufficiently articulate words, where she would find 
one. She procured the key, and on opening the closet, 
found a small parcel, which the spirit desired her to 
remit to the governor of the institution for the poor 



282 



TROUBLED SPIRITS. 



at B— with the injunction, that the contents rfiould 
be applied to the benefit of the inmates; this restitu- 
tion being the only means whereby he could obtain 
rest and peace in the other world. Having mentioned 
these circumstances to her master, who bade her do 
what she had been desired, she took the parcel to the 
governor and delivered it without communicating by 
what means it had come into her hands. Her name 
was entered in their books, and she was dismissed : 
but after she was gone, they discovered, to their sur- 
prise, that the packet contained an order for thirty 
thousand florins, of which the late Mr. St. — had de- 
frauded the institution and converted to his own use. 

Mr. St. — , jun., was now called upon to pay the 
money which he refusing to do, the affair was at length 
referred to the authorities, and the housekeeper beme 
arrested, he and she were confronted in the court 
where she detailed the circumstances by which the 

parcel had come into her possession. Mr. St denied 

the possibility of the thing, declaring the whole 
must be, for some purpose or other, an invention of 
her own Suddenly, whilst making this defence, he 
telt a blow upon his shoulder, which caused him to 
start and look round, and at the same moment the 
housekeeper exciaimed, "See! there he stands now' 
there is the ghost !" None perceived the figure ex- 
cepting the woman herself and Mr. St. — , but every- 
body present, the minister included, heard the follow- 
ing words "My S on, repair the injustice I have com- 
mitted, that I may be at peace !" The money was 
paid ; and Mr. St. — was so much affected by this 
pamful event, that he was seized with a severe illness 
from which he with difficulty recovered. 

Dr. Kerner says that these circumstances occurred 
in the year 1816, and created a considerable sensation 
at the time, though at the earnest request of the family 
of Mr. St. — , there was an attempt made to hush 
them up: adding, that in the month of October, 1819 



TROUBLED SPIRITS 283 

he was himself assured by a very respectable citizen of 
B — ., that it was universally known in the town thai, 
the ghost of the late superintendent had appeared to 
the housekeeper, and pointed out to her where she 
would find the packet; that she had consulted the mi- 
nister of her parish, who bade her deliver it as directed; 
that she had been subsequently arrested; and the affair 
brought before the authorities, where, whilst making 
his defence, Mr. St. — had received a blow on the 
shoulder from an invisible hand; and that Mr. St. — 
was so much affected by these circumstances, which got 
abroad in spite of the efforts to suppress them, that 
he did not long survive the event. 

Grose, the antiquary, makes himself very merry with 
the observation, that ghosts do not go about their 
business like other people; and that in cases of mur- 
der, instead of going to the nearest justice of peace 
or to the nearest relation of the deceased, a ghost 
addresses itself to somebody who had nothing to do 
with the matter, or hovers about the grave where the 
body is deposited. " The same circuitous mode is pur- 
sued," he says, "with respect to redressing injured 
orphans or widows; where it seems as if the shortest 
and most certain way would be, to go and haunt the 
person guilty of the injustice, till he were terrified into 
restitution. We find the same sort of strictures made 
I on the story of the ghost of Sir George Yilliers, which 
instead of going directly to his son, the Duke of Buck- 
I ingham, to warn him of his danger, addressed himself 
\ to an inferior person, whilst the warning was after all 
1 inefficacious, as the Duke would not take counsel; but 
surely such strictures are as absurd as the conduct of 
the ghost: at least T think there can be nothing more 
absurd than pretending to prescribe laws to nature, and 
judging of what we know so little about. 

The proceedings of the ghost in the following case 
will doubtless be equally displeasing to the critics. The 
■account is extracted verbatim from a work published 

T 



284 TROUBLED SPIRITS. 

by the Bannatyne Club, and is entitled, "Authentic 
Account of the Appearance of a Ghost in Queen Anne's 
County, Maryland, United States of North America, 
proved in the following remarkable trial, from attested 
notes, taken in court at the time, by one of the counsel." 

It appears that Thomas Harris had made some 
alteration in the disposal of his property, immediately 
previous to his death ; and that the family disputed 
the will and raised up difficulties likely to be injurious 
to his children. 

" William Brigs said, that he was forty- three years 
of age ; that Thomas Harris died in September, in the 
year 1790. In the March following he was riding near 
\ lie place where Thomas Harris was buried, on a horse 
formerly belonging to Thomas Harris. After crossing 
a small branch, his horse began to walk on very fast. 
It was between the hours of eight and nine o'clock in 
the ffioi\L r g. He was alone: it was a clear day. He 
entered a lane adjoining to the field where Thomas 
Harris was buried. His horse suddenly wheeled in a 
panel of the fence, looked over the fence into the field 
where Thomas Harris was buried and neighed very 
loud. Witness then saw Thomas Harris coming towards 
iiim, in the same apparel he had last seen him in his 
lifetime; he had on a sky blue coat. Just before he 
came to the fence, he varied to the right, and vanished; 
his horse immediately took the road. Thomas Harris 
came within two panels of the fence to him; he did 
not see his features, nor speak to him. He was 
acquainted with Thomas Harris when a boy, and theiv 
had always been a great intimacy between them. He 
thinks the horse knew Thomas Harris, because of his 
neighing, pricking up his ears, and looking over the 
fence. 

" About the first of June following, he was plough* 
ing in his own field, about three miles from where 
Thomas Harris was buried. About dusk Thomas 
Harris came alongside of him. and walked with him 



TROUBLED SPIRITS. 285 

about two hundred yards. He was dressed as when 
first seen. He made a halt about two steps from him. 
J. Bailey, who was ploughing along with him, came 
driving up, and he lost sight of the ghost. He was 
much alarmed; not a word was spoken. The young 
man Bailey did not see him; he did not tell Bailey of 
it. There was no motion of any particular part: he 
vanished. It preyed upon his mind so ac> to affect his 
health. He was with Thomas Harris when he died, 
but had no particular conversation with him. Some 
time after he was lying in bed, about eleven or twelve 
o'clock at night, he heard Thomas Harris groan; it was 
Like the groan he gave a few minutes before he expired: 
Mrs. Brigs, his wife, heard the groan. She got up and 
searched the house: he did not, because he knew the 
groan to be from Thomas Hams. Some time after, 
when in bed, and a great fire-light in the room, he saw 
a shadow on the wall, at the same time he felt a great 
weight upon him. Some time after, when in bed and 
asleep, he felt a stroke between his eyes, which blackened 
them both: his wife was in bed with him, and two young 
men were in the room. The blow awaked him, and all 
in the room were asleep; is certain no person in the 
room struck him; the blow swelled his nose. About 
the middle of August he was alone, coming from 
Hickey Collins's, after dark, about one hour in the 
night, Thomas Harris appeared, dressed as he had seen 
him when he was going down to the meeting-house 
branch, three miles and a half from the grave-yard ot 
Thomas Harris. It was starlight. He extended his 
-arms over his shoulders. Does not know how long he 
remained in this situation. He was much alarmed. 
Thomas Harris disappeared. Nothing was said. He 
ifelt no weight on his shoulders. He went back to 
Colonel Linsi, and got a young man to go with him. 
I After he got home he mentioned it to the young man. 
He had, before this, told James Harris he had seen his 
Drother s ghost. 



286 troubled spirits. 

" In October, about twilight in the morning, lie saw 
Thomas Harris about one hundred yards from the 
house of the witness; his head was leant to one side; 
same apparel as before; his face was towards him; he 
walked fast and disappeared; there was nothing between 
them to obstruct the view; he was about fifty yards 
from him, and alone; he had no conception why Thomas 
Harris appeared to him. On the same day, about eight 
o'clock in the morning, he was handing up blades to 
John Bailey, who was stacking them; he saw Thomas 
Harris come along the garden fence, dressed as before; 
he vanished, and always to the east: was within fifteen 
feet of him; Bailey did not see him. An hour and a 
half afterwards, in the same place, he again appeared, 
coming as before; came up to the fence; leaned on it 
within ten feet of the witness, who called to Bailey to 
look there (pointing towards Thomas Harris). Bailey 
asked what was there? Don't you see Harris? Does not 
recollect what Bailey said. Witness advanced towards 
Harris. One or the other spoke as witness got over 
the fence, on the same panel that Thomas Harris was 
leaning on. They walked off together about five hun- 
dred yards, a conversation took place as they walked; 
he has not the conversation on his memory. He could 
not understand Thomas Harris, his voice was so low. 
He asked Thomas Harris a question, and he forbid him. 
Witness then asked, ' Why not go to your brother 
instead of me V Thomas Harris said, • Ask me no 
questions.' Witness told him his will was doubted. 
Thomas Harris told him to ask his brother if he did 
not remember the conversation which passed between 
them on the east side of the wheat-stacks, the day he 
was taken with his death sickness; that he then declared 
that he wished all his property kept together by James 
Harris, until his children arrived at age, then the whole 
should be sold and divided among his children; and. 
should it be immediately sold, as expressed in his will, 
that the property would be most wanting to his children 



TROUBLED SPIRITS. 287 

wMle minors, therefore he had changed his will, and 
said that witness shonld see him again. He then told 
witness to turn, and disappeared. He did not speak 
to him with the same voice as in his life-time. He was 
not daunted while with Thomas Harris, but much after- 
wards. Witness then went to James Harris, and told 
him that he had seen his brother three times that day. 
Related the conversation he had with him. Asked 
James Harris if he remembered the conversation 
between him and his brother at the wheat-stack; he 
said he did, and told him what had passed. Said he 
would fulfil his brothers will. He was satisfied that 
witness had seen his brother, for that no other person 
knew the conversation. On the same evening, return- 
] ing home about an hour before sun-set, Thomas Harris 
' appeared to him, came alongside of him. Witness told 
him that his brother said he would fulfil his will. *No 
more conversation on this subject. He disappeared. 
He had farther conversation with Thomas Harris, but 
'not on this subject. He was always dressed in the same 
I manner. He had never related to any person the last 
conversation, and never would. 

a Bailey, who was sworn in the cause, declared that 
as he and Brigs were stacking blades, as related by 
I Brigs, he called to witness and said, ( Look there ! Do 
j you not see Thomas Harris V Witness said, c No.' 
i Brigs got over the fence, and walked some distance; 
•appeared by his action to be in deep conversation with 
sorne person. Witness saw no one. 

" The counsel was extremely anxious to hear from 
Mr. Brigs the whole of the conversation of the ghost, 
j and on his cross-examination took every means, without 
effect, to obtain it. They represented to him, as a 
(religious man, he was bound to disclose the whole truth. 
He appeared agitated when applied to, declaring 
nothing short of life should make him reveal the whole 
'conversation, and claiming the protection of the court 8 
that he had declared all he knew relative to the case. 



288 TROUBLED SPIRITS. 

" The Court overruled the question of the counsel. 
Hon. James Tilgman, judge. 

" His Excellency Robert Wright, late Governor of 
Maryland, and the Hon. Joseph H. Nicholson, after- 
wards judge of one of the courts in Maryland, were the 
counsel for the plaintiff. 

" John Scott and Richard T. Earle, Esqrs., were 
counsel for the defendant." 

Here, as in the case of Colonel M., mentioned in a 
former chapter, and some others I have met with, we 
find disclosures made that were held sacred. 

Dr. Kerner relates the following singular story, 
which he declares himself to have received from the 
most satisfactory authority. Agnes B., being at the 
time eighteen years of age, was living as servant in a 
small inn at Undenheim, her native place. The host 
and hostess were quite old people, who generally went 
to bed about eight o'clock, whilst she and the boy, the 
only other servant, were expected to sit up till ten, 
when they had to shut up the house and retire to bed 
also. One evening, as the host was sitting on a bench 
before the door, there came a beggar, requesting a 
night's lodging. The host, however, refused, and bade 
him seek what he wanted in the village, whereon the 
man went away. 

At the usual hour, the old people went to bed, and 
the two servants, having closed the shutters, and in- 
dulged in a little gossip with the watchman, were 
about to follow their example, when the beggar came 
round the corner of the neighbouring street, and 
earnestly entreated them to give him a lodging for the 
night, since he could find nobody that would take him 
in. At first, the young people refused, saying they 
dared not, without their masters leave, but at length 
ili' entreaties of the man prevailed, and they consented 
to let him sleep in the barn, on condition that, when 
they called him in the morning, he would immediately 
depart. At three o'clock they rose, and when the boy 



TROUBLED SPIRITS. 289 

< vitered the barn, to his dismay, lie found that the old 
man had expired in the night. They were now much 
perplexed with the apprehension of their masters dis- 
pleasure; so, after some consultation, they agreed that 
the lad should convey the body out of the barn, and 
lay it in a dry ditch that was near at hand, where it 
would be found by the labourers, and excite no 
question, as they would naturally conclude that he had 
!;iid himself down there to die. 

This was done, the man was discovered and buried, 
id they thought themselves well rid of the whole 
affair ; but, on the following night, the girl was 
awakened by the beggar, whom she saw standing at 
her bed-side. He looked at her, and then quitted the 
room by the door. " Glad was I," she says, " when 
the day broke, but I was scarcely out of the room 
when the boy came to me, trembling and pale, and 
before I could say a word to him of what I had seen, 
he told me that the beggar had been to his room in the 
night, had looked at him, and then gone away. He 
f aid he was dressed as when he had seen him alive, 
only he looked blacker, which I also had observed." 

Still afraid of incurring blame, they told nobody, 
although the apparition returned to them every night, 
and although they found removing to the other bed- 
chambers did not relieve them from his visits. But the 
effects of this persecution became so visible on both, 
that much curiosity was awakened in the village with 
respect to the cause of the alteration observed in them; 
and, at length, the boy's mother went to the minister, 
requesting him to interrogate her son, and endeavour 
to discover what was preying on his mind. To him 
the boy disclosed their secret, and this minister, who 
was a Protestant, having listened with attention to the 
story, advised him, when next he went to Mayence, to 
market, to call on Father Joseph of the Franciscan 
Convent, and relate the circumstance to him. This 
:ce was followed, and Father Joseph, assuring the 



290 TROUBLED SPIRITS. 

lad that the ghost could do him no harm, recommended 
him to ask him, in the name of God, what he desired. 
The boy did so, whereupon the apparition answered, 
4t Ye are children of grace, but I am a child of evil; 
in the barn, under the straw, you will find my money. 
Take it ; it is yours." In the morning, the boy found the 
money accordingly in an old stocking, hid under the 
straw; but having a natural horror of it, they took it 
to then minister, who advisee! them to divide it into 
three parts: giving one to the Franciscan Convent at 
Mayence. another to the Reformed Church, in the vil- 
lage, and the third to that to which they themselves 
belonged, which was of the Lutheran persuasion. This 
they did, and were no more troubled with the beggar. 
With respect to the minister who gave them this good 
advice, I can only say, all honour be to him ! I wish 
there were many more such ! The circumstance occurred 
in the year 1750, and is related by the daughter of 
Agnes R, who declared that she had frequently heard 
it from her mother. 

The circumstance of this apparition looking darker 
than the man had done when alive, is significant of his 
condition ; and confirms what I have said above, namely, 
that the moral state of the disembodied soul can no 
longer be concealed as it was hi the flesh ; but that as 
he is, he must necessarily appear. 

There is an old saying that we should never lie down 
to rest at enmity with any human being ; and the story 
of the ghost of the Princess Anna of Saxony, who 
appeared to Duke Christian of Saxe-Eisenburg, is 
strongly confirmatory of the wisdom of this axiom. 

Duke Christian was sitting one morning in his study ; 
when he was surprised by a knock at his door — an un- 
usual circumstance, since the guards as well as the people 
in waiting were always in the ante-room. He however 
cried, " Come in 1" when there entered, to his amaze- 
ment, a lady in an ancient costume, who, in answer to 
his inquiries, tuld him that .she was no evil spnit, and 



TROUBLED SPIRITS. 291 

would do him no harm; but that she was one of his 
ancestors, and had been the wife of Duke John Casinier, 
of Saxe-Coburg. She then related that she and her 
husband had not been on good terms at the period of 
their deaths, and that although she had sought a recon- 
ciliation^ he had been inexorable; pursuing her with 
unmitigated hatred, and injuring her by unjust suspi- 
cions; and that consequently although the vaa happy, 
he was still wandering in cold and darkness betwixt 
time and eternity. She had, however, long known that 
one of their descendants was destined to effect this re- 
conciliation for them, and they were rejoiced to find 
the time for it had at length arrived. She then gave 
the Duke eight days to consider if he were willing to 
perform this good office, and disappeared; whereupon 
he consulted a clergyman, in whom he had great confi- 
dence, who, after finding the ghost's communications 
verified by a reference to the annals of the family, ad- 
vised him to comply with her request. 

As the Duke had yet some difficulty in believing it 
was really a ghost he had seen, he took care to have his 
door well watched ; she, however, entered at the ap- 
pointed time unseen by the attendants ; and, having 
received the Duke's promise, she told him that she 
would return with her husband on the following night; 
for that, though she could come by day, he could not ; 
that having heard the circumstances, the Duke must 
arbitrate between them, and then unite their hands, 
and bless them. The door was still watched, but 
nevertheless the apparitions both came, the Duke 
Casimer in full royal costume, but of a livid paleness ; . 
and when the wife had told her story, he told his. 
Duke Christian decided for the lady, in which judg- 
ment Duke Casimer fully acquiesced. Christian then 
took the ice-cold hand of Casimer and laid it in that of ; 
his wife, which felt of a natural heat. They then pray 3d 
and sang together, and the apparitions disappeared,, 
having foretold that Duke Christian would ere long be 



292 TROUBLED SPIRITS. 

with thorn. The family records showed that these 
people had lived about one hundred years before Duke 
Christian's time, who himself died in the year 1707, 
two years after these visits of his ancestors. He desired 
to be buried in quick-lime, it is supposed from an idea 
that it might prevent his ghost walking the earth. 

The costume in which they appeared was precisely 
that they had worn when alive, as was ascertained by a 
reference to their portraits. 

The expression that her husband was wandering in 
cold and darkness betwixt time and eternity, is here 
very worthy of observation ; as are the circumstances, 
that his hand was cold, whilst hers w~as warm; and 
also, the greater privilege she seemed to enjoy. The 
hands of the unhappy spirits appear, I think, invariably 
to communicate a sensation of cold. 

I have heard of three instances of persons now alive, 
who declare that they hold continual intercourse with 
their deceased partners. One of these is a naval officer, 
whom the author of the book lately published, called 
" The Unseen World," appears to be acquainted with. 
The second is a professor in a college in America, a 
man of eminence and learning, and full of activity and 
energy — yet he assured a friend of mine, that he 
receives constant visits from his departed wife, which 
afford him great satisfaction. The third example is a 
lady in this country. She is united to a second 
husband, has been extremely happy in both marriages ; 
and declares that she receives frequent visits from her 
first. Oberlin, the good pastor of Ban de la Roche. 
rted the same thing of himself. His wife came to 
him frequently after her death ; was seen by the rest of 
his household, as well as himself ; and warned him 
beforehand of many events that occurred. 

Mrs. Matthews relates in the memoirs of her hus- 
band, that he was one night in bed and unable to sleep 
from the excitement that continues some time after 
acting ; when, hearing a rustling by the side of the bed, 



TROUBLED SPIRITS. 293 

he looked out, and saw his first wife, who was then 
dead, standing by the bedside, dressed as when alive. 
She smiled and bent forward as if to take his hand ; 
but in his alarm, he threw himself out on the floor to 
avoid the contact, and was found by the landlord in a 
fit. On the same night, at the same hour, the present 
Mrs. Matthews, who was far away from him, received 
a similar visit from her predecessor, whom she had 
known when alive. She was quite awake ; and in her 
terror seized the bell-rope to summon assistance, which 
gave way, and she fell with it in her hand to the 
ground. 

Professor Barthe, who visited Oberlin in 1824, says. 
that whilst he spoke of his intercourse with the spiritual 
world as familiarly as of the daily visits of his parish- 
ioners, he was at the same time perfectly free from 
fanaticism, and eagerly alive to all the concerns of this 
earthly existence. He asserted, what I find many 
somnambules and deceased persons also assert, that 
everything on earth is but a copy, of which the antitype 
is to be found in the other. 

He said to his visitor, that he might as well attempt 
to persuade him that that was not a table before them, 
as that he did not hold communication with the other 
world. i: I give you credit for being honest, when you 
assure me that , you never saw anything of the kind, ' 
said he ; £i give me the same credit when I assure vou 
that I da" 

With respect to the faculty of ghost-seeing, he said, 
it depended on several circumstances, external and 
internal. People who live in the bustle and glare of 
the world seldom see them, whilst those who live in 
still, solitary, thinly inhabited places, like the moun- 
tainous districts of various countries, do. So if I go 
into the forest by night, I see the phosphoric light of a 
piece of rotten wood ; but if I go by day, I cannot see 
it ; yet it is still there. Again there must be a rapport. 
A tender mother is awakened by the faintest cry of her 



294 TROUBLED SPIRITS. 

infant, whilst the maid slumbers on and never hears it ; 
and if I thrust a needle amongst a parcel of wood- 
shavings, and hold a magnet over them, the needle is 
stirred, whilst the shavings are quite unmoved. There 
must be a particular aptitude ; what it consists in, I do 
not know ; for of my people, many of whom are ghost- 
seers, some are weak and sickly, others vigorous and 
strong. Here are several pieces of flint : I can see no 
difference in them ; yet some have so much iron in them 
that they easily become magnetic • others have little 
or none. So it is with the faculty of ghost- seeing. 
People may laugh as they will, but the thing is a fact, 
nevertheless. 

The visits of his wife continued for nine years after 
her death, and then ceased. 

At length she sent him a message, through another 
deceased person, to say that she was now elevated to a 
higher state, and could, therefore, no longer revisit the 
earth. 

Nev r er was there a purer spirit, nor a more beloved 
human being than Oberlin. When first he was ap- 
pointed to the cure of Ban de la Roche, and found Ins 
people talking so familiarly of the re-appearance of the 
dead, he reproved them, and preached against the 
superstition; nor was he convinced till after the death 
of his wife. She had, however, previously received a 
visit from her deceased sister, the wife of Professor 
Oberlin, of Strasburg, who had warned her of her 
approaching death, for which she immediately set about 
preparing, making extra clothing for her children, and 
even laying in provisions for the funeral feast. She 
then took leave of her husband and family, and went 
quietly to bed. On the following morning she died; 
and Oberlin never heard of the warning she had 
received till she disclosed it to him in her spectral 
visitations. 

Tn narrating the following story, I am not permitted 



TROUBLED SPIRITS. 295 

to give the names of the place or parties, nor the 
number of the regiment, with all of which, however, I 
am acquainted. The account was taken down by one 
of the officers, with whose family T am also acquainted ; 
and the circumstance occurred within the last ten 
years. 

u About the month of August," says Capham E., 
" my attention was requested by the schoolmaster- 
sergeant, a man of considerable worth, and highly 
esteemed by the whole corps, to an event which had 
occurred in the garrison hospital Having heard his 
recital, which from the serious earnestness with which 
he made it, challenged attention, I resolved to investi- 
gate the matter ; and having communicated the circum- 
stance to a friend, we both repaired to the hospital for 
the purpose of inquiry. 

" There were two patients to be examined — both 
men of good character, and neither of them suffering 
from any disorder affecting the brain; the one was 
under treatment for consumptive symptoms, and the 
other for an ulcerated leg, and they were both in the 
prime of life. 

" Having received a confirmation of the school- 
master's statement from the hospital-sergeant, also a 
very respectable and trustworthy man, I sent for the 
patient principally concerned, and desired hini to state 
what he had seen and heard, warning lihn, at the same 
time, that it was my intention to take down his depo- 
sition, and that it behoved him to be very careful, as 
possibly serious steps might be taken for the purpose 
of discovering whether an imposition had been prac- 
tised in the wards of the hospital — a crime for which, 
he was well aware, a very severe penalty would be in- 
flicted. He then proceeded to relate the circumstances, 
which I took down in the presence of Mr. B. and the 
hospital-sergeant, as follows : — 

u * It was last Tuesday night, somewhere between 



396 TROUBLED SPIRITS. 

eleven and twelve, when all of us were in bod, and all 
lights out except the rushlight that was allowed for the 
man with the fever, when I was awoke by feeling a 
weight upon my feet, and at the same moment, as I 
was drawing up my legs, Private W., who lies in the 
cot opposite mine, called out, " I say, Q., there's some- 
body sitting upon your legs !" and as I looked to the 
bottom of my bed I saw some one get up from it, 
and then come round and stand over me, in the passage 
betwixt my cot and the next. I felt somewhat alarmed, 
for the last few nights the ward had been disturbed by 
sounds as of a heavy foot walking up and down ; and as 
nobody could be seen it was beginning to be supposed 
amongst us that it was haunted, and fancying this that 
came up to my bed's head might be the ghost, I called 
out, ''Who are you 1 and what do you want?" 

" '- The figure then leaning with one hand on the wall, 
over my head, and stooping down, said, in my ear, " I 
am Mrs. M. ;" and I could then distinguish that she 
was dressed in a flannel gown, edged with black 
ribbon, exactly similar to a set of grave clothes in 
which I had assisted to clothe her corpse when her 
death took place a year previously. 

•'- -The voice, however, was not like Mrs. M.'s, nor 
like anybody else's, yet it was very distinct, and 
seemed somehow to sing through my head. I could 
see nothing of a face beyond a darkish colour about the 
head, and it appeared to me that I could see through 
her body against the window-glasses. 

u ' Although I felt very uncomfortable, I asked her 
what she wanted. She replied, "I am Mrs. M., and I 
wish you to write to liim that was my husband, and 
tell him—" 

" 'I am not, Sir," said Corporal Q., 'at liberty to 
mention to anybody what she told me, except to her 
husband. He is at the depot in Ireland, and I have 
written and told him. She made me promise not to 



TROUBLED SPIRITS. 297 

tell any one else. After I had promised seeresy she 
told me something of a matter that convinced me E 
was talking to a spirit, for it related to what only I 
and Mrs. M. knew, and no one living could know 
an}'thing whatever of the matter; and if I was now 
speaking my last words on earth I say solemnly that 
it was Mrs. M.'s spirit that spoke to me then, and 
no one else. After promising that if I complied with 
her request she would not trouble me or the ward 
again, she went from my bed towards the fireplace, 
and with her hands she kept feeling about the wall over 
the mantelpiece. After awhile she came towards me 
again; and whilst my eyes were upon her, she some- 
how disappeared from my sight altogether, and I was 
left alone. 

" ' It was then that I felt faint-like, and a cold sweat 
broke out over me; but I did not faint, and after a time 
I got better, and gradually I went off to sleep. 

rt i The men in the ward said, next day, that Mrs. M. 
had come to speak to me about purgatory, because she 
had been a Roman Catholic, and we had often had 
arguments on religion; but what she told me had no 
reference to such subjects, but to a matter only she and 
I knew of 

n After closely cross-questioning Corporal Q., and 
endeavouring, without success, to reason him out of his 
belief in the ghostly character of his visitor, I read 
over to him what I had written, and then, dismissing 
him, sent for the other patient. 

" After cautioning him, as I had done the first, 
I proceeded to take down his statement, which was 
made with every appearance of good faith and sincerity. 

" ' I was lying awake,' said he, ' last Tuesday night, 
when I saw some one sitting on Corporal Q.'s bed. 
There was so little light in the ward that I coidd 
not make out who it was, and the figure looked so 
strange that I got alarmed* and felt quite sick. I called 



298 TROUBLED SPIRITS. 

out to Corporal Q. that there was somebody sitting- 
upon his bed, and then the figure got up ; and as 1 
did not know but it might be coming to me I got so 
much alarmed that being but weakly (this was the 
consumptive man) I fell back, and I believe I fainted 
away. When I got round again, I saw the figure 
standing and apparently talking to the Corporal, placing 
one hand against the wall and stooping down. I could 
not, however, hear any voice; and being still much 
alarmed I put my head under the clothes for a con- 
siderable time. When I looked up again, I could only 
see Corporal Q., sitting up in bed alone, and he said 
he had seen a ghost; and I told him I had also seen 
it. After a time he got up and gave me a drink of 
water, for I was very faint. Some of the other patients 
being disturbed by our talking, they bid us be quiet, 
and after some time I got to sleep. The ward has not 
been disturbed since.' 

" The man was then cross-questioned ; but his testi- 
mony remaining quite unshaken, he was dismissed, and 
the hospital-sergeant was interrogated, with regard to 
the possibility of a trick having been practised. He 
asserted, however, that this was impossible; and, cer- 
tainly, from my own knowledge of the hospital regu- 
lations, and the habits of the patients, I should say 
that a practical joke of this nature was too serious a 
thing to have been attempted by anybody, especially 
as there were patients in the ward very ill at the time, 
and one very near his end. The punishment would 
have been extremely severe, and discovery almost 
certain, since everybody would have been adverse to 
the delinquent. 

" The investigation that ensued was a very brief one, 
it, being found that there was nothing more to be 
elicited ; and the affair terminated with the supposition 
that the two men had been dreaming. Nevertheless, 
six months afterwards, on being interrogated, their 



TROUBLED SPIRITS. 299 

evidence and their conviction were as clear as at first, 
and they declared themselves ready at any time to 
repeat their statement upon oath." 

Supposing this case to be as the men believed it, 
there are several things worthy of observation. In the 
first place, the ghost is guilty of that inconsistency so 
offensive to Francis Grose and many others. Instead 
of telling ber secret to her husband, she commissions 
the Corporal to tell it him, and it is not till a year 
after her departure from this life that she does even 
that : and she is heard in the ward two or three nights 
before she is visible. We are therefore constrained to 
suppose that, like Mrs. Bretton, she could not communi- 
cate with her husband, and that till that Tuesday 
night, the necessary conditions for attaining her object, 
as regarded the Corporal, were wanting. It is also 
remarkable, that although the latter heard her speak 
distinctly, and spoke to her, the other man heard no 
voice; which renders it probable that she had at length 
been able to produce that impression upon him, which 
a magnetiser does on his somnambule, enabling each to 
understand the other by a transference of thought, 
which was undistinguishable to the Corporal from 
speaking, as it is frequently to the somnambule. The 
imitating the actions of life by leaning against the wall 
and feeling about the mantelpiece, are very unlike 
what a person would have done, who was endeavouring 
to impose on the man; and equally unlike what they 
would have reported, had the thing been an invention 
of their own. 

Amongst the established jests on the subject of 
ghosts, their sudden vanishing is a very fruitful one; 
but, I think, if we examine this question, we shall find 
that there is nothing comical in the matter, except the 
ignorance or want of reflection of the jesters. 

In the first place, as I have before observed, a spirit 
must be where its thoughts and affections are, for they 



300 TIIOUBLE-D SPIRITS. 

are itself — our spirits are where our .thoughts and 
affections are, although our solid bodies remain station- 
ary; and no one will suppose, that walls or doors, or 
material obstacles of any kind, could exclude a spirit 
any more than they can exclude our thoughts. 

But then, there is the visible body of the spirit — 
what is that 1 ? and how does it retain its shape? For 
ve know that there is a law discovered by Dalton. 
that two masses of gaseous matter cannot remain in 
contact, but they will immediately proceed to diffuse 
themselves into one another; and accordingly, it may 
be advanced, that a gaseous corporeity in tks atmo- 
sphere is an impossibility, because it could not retain 
its form, but would inevitably be dissolved away and 
blend with the surrounding air. But precisely the 
same objection might be made by a chemist to the pos- 
sibility of our fleshly bodies retaining their integrity 
and compactness; for the human body, taken as a 
whole, is known to be an impossible chemical com- 
pound, except for the vitality which upholds it; and 
no sooner is life withdrawn from it than it crumbles 
into putrescence; and it is undeniable, that the aeri- 
form body would be an impossible mechanical pheno- 
menon, but for the vitality which we are entitled to 
suppose may uphold it. But, just as the state or con- 
dition of organization protects the fleshly body from 
the natural re-actions which would destroy it, so may 
an analogous condition of organization protect a spi- 
ritual ethereal body from the destructive influence of 
the mutual inter-diffusion of gases. 

Thus, supposing this aeriform body to be a perma- 
nent appurtenance of the spirit, we see Lew it may 
subsist and retain its integrity, and it would be as 
reasonable to hope to exclude the electric fluid by walls 
or doors as to exclude by them this subtle, fluent form. 
If, on the contrary, the shape be only one constructed 
out of the atmosphere, by an act of will, the same 
act of will ; which is a vital force, will preserve it 



TROUBLED SPIRITS. 301 

entire, till the will being withdrawn, it dissolves away. 
In either case, the moment the will or thought of the 
spirit is elsewhere, it is gone — it has vanished. 

For those who prefer the other hypothesis, namely, 
that there is no outstanding shape at all, but that the 
>vi 7 J of the spirit, acting on the constructive imagina- 
tion of the seer," enables him to conceive the form, as 
the spirit itself conceives of it, there can be no difficulty 
m understanding, that the becoming in VLsii»le will dopes?* 
yierelv on a similar act of wilL 



302 



CHAPTER XIII. 

HAUNTED HOUSES. 

Everybody has heard of haunted houses ; and there if* 
no country, and scarcely any place, in which something 
of the sort is not known or talked of; and I suppose 
there is no one who in the course of his travels, has not 
seen very respectable, good-looking houses shut up and 
uninhabited, because they had this evil reputation 
assigned to them. I have seen several such, for my 
own part ; and it is remarkable that this mala fama 
does not always, by any means, attach itself to build- 
ings one would imagine most obnoxious to such a sus- 
picion. For example, I never heard of a ghost being 
seen or heard in Haddon Hall, the most ghostly of 
houses ; nor in Holyrood, nor in many other antique, 
mysterious-looking buildings, where one might expect 
them, whilst sometimes a house of a very prosaic aspect 
remains uninhabited, and is ultimately allowed to fall 
to ruin for no other reason, we are told, than that no- 
body can live in it. I remember, in my childhood, such 
a house in Kent — I think it was on the road betwixt 
Maidstone and Tunbridge — which had this reputation. 
There was nothing dismal about it ; it was neither large 
nor old ; and it stood on the borders of a well-frequented 
road ; yet, I was assured it had stood empty for years ; 
and as long as I lived in that part of the country it 
never had an inhabitant, and I believe was finally pulled 
down; and all for no other reason than that it was 
haunted, and nobody could live in it. I have frequently 
heard of people, whilst travelling on the continent, get- 



HAUNTED HOUSES. 303 

ting into houses at. a rent so low as to surprise them, 
and I have moreover frequently heard of very strange 
filings occurring whilst they were there. I remember, 
for instance, a family of the name of S. S., who obtained 
a very handsome house at a most agreeably cheap rate, 
somewhere on the coast of Italy — I think it was at 
Mola de Gaeta. They lived very comfortably in u, till 
one day, whilst Mrs. S. S. was sitting in the drawing- 
room, which opened into a balcony overhanging the 
sea, she saw a lady dressed in white pass along before 
the windows, which were all closed. Concluding it was 
one of her daughters, who had been accidentally shut 
out, she arose and opened the window to allow her to 
enter, but on looking out, to her amazement, there was 
nobody there, although there was no possible escape 
from the balcony unless by jumping into the sea. On 
mentioning this circumstance to somebody in the ne gh- 
bourhood, they were told " that that was the reason 
they had the house so cheap; nobody liked to live 
in it." 

I have heard of several houses, even in populous 
c-ities, to which some strange circumstance of this sort 
is attached — some in London even, and some in this 
city and neighbourhood; and what is more, unaccount- 
able things actually do happen to those who inhabit 
them. Doors are strangely opened and shut, a rustling 
of silk, and sometimes a whispering, and frequently 
footsteps are heard. There is a house in Ayrshire, to 
which this sort of thing has been attached for years, 
insomuch that it was finally abandoned to an old man 
and woman, who said that they were so used to it that 
they did not mind it. A distinguished authoress told 
me, that some time ago she passed a night at the house 
of an acquaintance, in one of the midland counties of 
England. She and her sister occupied the same room. 
and in the night they heard some one ascei.ding th? 
stairs; the foot came distinctly to the door, then turned 
away, ascended the next flight, and they heard it over- 



304 HAUNTED HOUSES. 

iiead. In the morning, on being asked if they had slept 
well, they mentioned this circumstance. " That is what 
everybody hears who sleeps in that room," said the lady 
of the house. " Many a time I have, when sleeping 
there, drawn up the night-bolt, persuaded that the nurse 
was bringing the baby to me ; but there was nobody 
to be seen. We have taken eveiy pains to disco ver 
what it is, but in vain ; and are now so used to it, that 
we have ceased to care about the matter." 

I know of two or three other houses in this city, and 
one in the neighbourhood, in w T hich circumstances of this 
nature are transpiring, or have transpired very lately; 
but people hush them up, from the fear of being 
laughed at, and also from an apprehension of injuring 
the character of a house; on which account, I do not 
dwell on the particulars; but there was some time since 
a fama of this kind attached to a house in St. J ■■ 
Street, some ot the details of which became very 
public. It had stood empty a long time, in consequence 
of the annoyances to which the inhabitants had been 
subjected. There was one room particularly which 
nobody could occupy without disturbance. On one 
occasion, a youth who had been abroad a considerable 
time, either in the army or navy, was put there to 
sleep on his arrival, since, knowing nothing of these 
reports, it was hoped his rest might not be intercepted. 
In the morning, however, he complained of the dread- 
fid time he had had with people looking in at him 
between the curtains of his bed, all night, avowing his 
resolution to terminate his visit that same day, as he 
would not sleep there any more. After this period, 
the house stood empty again for a considerable time, 
but was at length taken, and workmen sent in to repair 
it. One day, when the men were away at their din 
ner, the master tradesman took the key, and went to 
inspect progress, and having examined the lower roomfi 
1 was ascending the stairs, when he heard a man': 
behind him. He looked round, but there W&a 



FTAUNTED HOUSES. 305 

nobody there, and he moved on again; still there was 
somebody following, and he stopped and looked over 
-lie rails, bnt there was no one to be seen. So, though 
ing rather queer, he advanced into the drawing- 
room, where a fire had been lighted, and wishing to 
combat the uncomfortable sensation that was creeping 
ver him, he took hold of a chair, and drawing it re- 
dely along the floor, he slammed it down upon the 
hearth with some force, and seated himself in it; when, 
to his amazement, the action, in ail its particulars of 
sound, was immediately repeated by his unseen com- 
panion, who seemed to seat himself beside hiiii on a 
chair as invisible as himself. Horrorstruck, the worthy 
builder started up and rushed out of the house. 

There is a house in S Street, in London, which, 

having stood empty a good while, was at length taken 
by Lord B. The family were annoyed by several un- 
pleasant occurrences, and by the sound of footsteps, 
which were often audible, especially in Lady B. ? s bed- 
room, who, though she could not see the form, wm 
occasionally conscious of its immediate proximity. 

Some time since, a gentleman, having established 
himself in a lodging in London, felt, the first night he 
slept there, that the clothes were being dragged off his 
bed. He fancied he had done it lumself in his sleep, 
and pulled them on again; but it happens repeatedly; 
he gets out of bed each time — can find nobody — no 
string — no possible explanation, nor can obtain any 
from the people of the house, who only seem distressed 
and annoyed. On mentioning it to some one in the 
neighbourhood, he is informed that the same thing has 
occurred to several preceding occupants of the lodging; 
which, of course, he left. 

The circumstances that happened at New House, in 
Hampshire, as detailed by Mr. Barham, in the third 
volume of the " Ingoldsby Legends,'' are known to be 
perfectly authentic, as are the following, the account of 
which t have received from a highly respectable ser- 



306 HAUNTED HOUSES. 

vant, residing in a family with whom I am well ac- 
quainted: — She informs me, that she was not very long 
since living with a Colonel and Mrs. W., who, being at 
Carlisle, engaged a furnished house, which they obtained 
at an exceedingly cheap rate, because nobody liked to 
live in it. This family, however, met with no annoy- 
ance, and attached no importance to the rumour which 
had kept the house empty. There were, however, two 
rooms in it wholly unfurnished, and as the house was 
large, they were dispensed with, till the recurrence of 
the race week, when, expecting company, these two 
rooms were temporarily fitted np for the use of the 
nurses and children. There were heavy Venetian blinds 
to the windows, and in the middle of the night, the 
person who related the circumstances to me, was 
awakened by the distinct sound of these blinds being 
pulled up and down with violence, perhaps as many as 
twenty times. The fire had fallen low, and she could 
not see whether they were actually moved or not, but 
lay trembling in indescribable terror, "\esently, feet 
were heard in the room, and a stamping as if several 
men were moving about without stockings. Whilst 
lying in this state of agony, she was comforted by hear- 
ing the voice of a nurse, who slept in another bed in 
the same chamber, exclaiming, " The Lord have mercy 
upon us !" This second woman then asked the first if 
she had courage to get out of bed and stir up the fire, 
so that they might be able to see; which, by a great 
effort, she did; the chimney being near her bed. There 
was, however, nothing to be discovered; everything 
being precisely as when they went to bed. On another 
occasion, when they were sitting in the evening at 
work, they distinctly heard some one counting money, 
and the chink of the pieces as they were laid clown. 
The sound proceeded from the inner room of the two; 
but there was nobody there. This family left the 
house, and though a large and commodious one, she 
understood it remained unoccupied as before. 



HAUNTED HOUSES. 307 

A respectable citizen of Edinburgh, not long ago, 
went to America to visit his son, who had married and 
settled there. The morning after his arrival, he declared 
his determination to return immediately to Philadel- 
phia, from which the house was at a considerable 
distance; and on being interrogated as to the cause of 
this sudden departure, he said, that in the previous 
night he had heard a man walking about his room, 
who had approached the bed, drawn back the curtains, 
and bent over him. Thinking it was somebody who 
had concealed himself there with ill intentions, he had 
struck out violently at the figure; when, to his horror, 
his arm passed unimpeded through it. 

Other extraordinary things happened in that house, 
which had the reputation of being haunted, although 
the son had not believed it, and had therefore not men- 
tioned the report to the father. One day, the children 
said they had been running after " such a queer thing 
in the cellar ; it was like a goat, and not like a goat; 
but it seemed to be like a shadow." 

A few years ago, some friends of mine were taking a 
house in this city, when the servants of the people who 
were leaving, advised them not to have anything to do 
with it; for that there was a ghost in it that screamed 
dreadfully, and that they never could keep a stitch of 
clothes on them at night ; the bed-coverings were 
always pulled off. My friends laughed heartily, and 
took the house; but the cries and groans all over it 
were so frequent that they at length got quite used to 
them. It is to be observed that the house was a flat, or 
floor, shut in; so that there could be no draughts of air, 
nor access for tricks. Besides, it was a woman's voice, 
sometimes close to their ears, sometimes in a closet, 
sometimes behind their beds — in short, in all directions. 
Everybody heard it that went to the house. 

The tenant that succeeded them, however, has never 
been troubled with it. 

The story of the Brown Lady at the Marquis of T.'si 



308 HAUOTED HOUSES. 

iu Norfolk, is known to many. The Hon. H. W. told 
me that a friend oi his, whilst staying there, had ofcej 
seen her, and had one day inquired of his host, * Whj 
was the lady in brown that he had met frequently on 
the stairs'?" Two gentlemen, whose names were men« 
tioned to me, resolved to watch for her and intercept 
her. They at length saw her, but she eluded them by 
turning down a staircase, and when they looked over 
she had disappeared. Many persons have seen her. 

There is a Scotch family of distinction, who, I am 
told, are accompanied by an unseen attendant, whom 
they call a Spinning Jenny." She is heard spinning in 
their house in the country, and when they come into 
own, she spins here; servants and all hear the sound 
of her wheel. I believe she accompanies thein no 
further than to their own residences, not to those of 
other people. Jenny is supposed to be a former house- 
maid of the family, who was a great spinner, and they 
are so accustomed to her presence as to feel it no 
annoyance. 

The following very singular circumstance was related 
to me by the daughter of the celebrated Mrs. S. : — 
Mrs. S. and her husband were travelling into Wales, 
and had occasion to stop on their way, some days, at 
Oswestry. There they established themselves in a 
lodging, to reach the door of which they had to go 
down a sort of close, or passage. 

The only inhabitants of the house were the mistress, 
a very handsome woman, and two maids. Mr. and Mrs. 
&, however, very soon had occasion to complain of the 
neglected state of the rooms, which were apparently 
never cleaned or dusted; though, strange to say, to 
judge by their own ears, the servants were doing 
nothing else all night, their sleep being constantly dis- 
turbed by the noise of rubbing, sweeping, and the 
moving of furniture. When they complained to these 
servants ot the noise in the night, and dirt of the 
rooms, they answered that the neise was not made by 



HAUNTED HOUSES. 309 

them, and that it was impossible for them to do their 
work, exhausted as they were by sitting tip all night 
with their mistress, who could not bear to be alone 
when she was in bed. Mr. and Mrs. S. afterwards 
discovered that she had her room lighted up every 
night; and one day, as they were returning from a 
walk, and she happened to be going down the close 
before tliein, they heard her saying, as she turned her 
head sharply from side to side, "Are you there again? 
What, the devil ! Go away, I tell you !" &c. &c. On 
applying to the neighbours for an explanation of these 
mysteries, the good people only shook their heads, and 
gave mysterious answers. Mr. and Mrs. S. afterwards 
learnt that she was believed to have murdered a girl 
who formerly lived in her service. 

There is nothing in the conduct of this unhappy 
woman which may not be perfectly well accounted for, 
by the supposition of a guilty conscience; but the 
noises heard by Mr. and Mrs. S. at night are curiously 
in accordance with a variety of similar stories, wherein 
this strange visionary repetition of the trivial actions of 
daily life, or of some particular incident, has been 
observed. The affair of Lord St. Vincent's was of this 
natare; and there is somewhere extant, an account of 
the ghost of Peter the Great of Russia having ap- 
peared to Doctor Doppelio, complaining to him of the 
sufferings he endured from having to act over again his 
former cruelties; a circumstance which exhibits a re- 
markable coincidence with the Glasgow dream, men- 
tioned in a preceding chapter. We must, of course, 
attach a symbolical meaning to these phenomena, and 
conclude that these reactings are somewhat of the 
nature of our dreams. 

Certainly, there would need no stronger motive to 

ice us to spend the period allotted to us on earth, in 

those pure and innocent pleasures and occupations, 

which never weary or sicken the soul, than the belie! 

that such a future awaits us! 



310 HAUNTED HOUSES. 

A family in one of the English counties was a few 
years ago terribly troubled by an unseen inmate, who 
chiefly seemed to inhabit a large cellar, into which 
there was no entrance except the door, which was kept 
locked. Here there would be a loud knocking — some- 
times a voice crying — heavy feet walking, &c. &c. At 
first the old trustworthy butler would summon his 
acolytes, and descend, armed with sword and blunder- 
buss, but no one was to be seen. They could often hear 
the feet following them up stairs from this cellar; and 
once, when the family had determined to watch, they 
found themselves accompanied up stairs, not only by the 
sound of the feet, but by a visible shadowy companion! 
They rushed up, flew to their chamber, and shut the 
door, when instantly they felt and saw the handle turned 
in their hand by a hand outside. Windows and doors 
wer** opened in spite of locks and keys; but notwith- 
standing the most persevering investigations, the only 
clue to the mystery was the appearance of that spectral 
figure. 

The knockings and sounds of people at work, asserted 
to be heard in mines, is a fact maintained by many very 
sensible men, overseers, and superintendents, <fec, as 
well as by the workmen themselves; and there is a 
strong persuasion, I know, amongst the miners of Corn- 
wall and those of Mendip, that these visionary workmen 
are sometimes heard amongst them; on which occasions 
the horses evince their apprehensions by trembling and 
sweating; but as I have no means of verifying these 
reports, I do not dwell upon them further. 

When the mother of George Canning, then Mrs. 
Hunn, was an actress in the provinces, she went, amongst 
other places, to Plymouth, having previously requested 
her friend, Mr. Bernard, of the theatre, to procure her 
a lodging. On her arrival, Mr. B. told her that if she 
was not afraid of a ghost, she might have a comfortable 
residence at a very low rate; "for there is," said he, "« 
house belonging to our carpenter, that is reported to be 



HAUNTED HOUSES. 311 

haunted, and nobody will live in it. If you like to 
have it, you may, and for nothing, I believe, for he is so 
anxious to get a tenant; only you must not let it be 
known that you do not pay rent for it." 

Mrs. Hunn, alluding to the theatrical apparitions, 
said it would not be the first time she had had to do 
with a ghost, and that she was very willing to encounter 
this one; so she had her luggage taken to the house in 
question, and the bed prepared. At "her usual hour, 
she sent her maid and her children to bed, and, curious 
to see if there was any foundation for the rumour she 
had heard, she seated herself with a couple of candles 
and a, book, to watch the event. Beneath the room 
she occupied was the carpenters workshop, which had 
two doors: the one which opened into the street was 
barred and bolted within; the other, a smaller one, 
opening into the passage, was only on the latch; and 
the house was, of course, closed for the night. She 
had read somewhat more than half an hour, when she 
perceived a noise issuing from this lower apartment, 
which sounded very much like the sawing of wood; 
presently, other such noises as usually proceed from a 
carpenter s workshop were added, till, by and by, there 
was a regular concert of knocking and hammering, and 
sawing and planing, &c. ; the whole sounding like half a 
dozen busy men in full employment. Being a woman 
of considerable courage, Mrs, Hunn resolved, if possible, 
to penetrate the mystery; so, taking off her shoes, that 
her approach might not be heard, with her candle in 
her hand, she veiy softly opened her door and descended 
the stairs, the noise continuing as loud as ever, and 
evidently proceeding from the workshop, till she opened 
the door, when instantly all was silent — all was still — ■ 
not a mouse was stirring; and the tools and the wood, 
and everything else, lay as they had been left by the 
workmen when they went away. Having examined 
every part of the place, and satisfied herself that there 
was nobody there, and that nobody could get into itj 



312 HAUNTED HOUSES 

Mrs. Hunn ascended to her room again, beginning 
almost to doubt her own senses, and question with herself 
whether she had really heard the noise or not, when it 
re-commenced and continued, without intermission, for 
about half an hour. She however went to bed, and the 
next day told nobody what had occurred, having deter- 
mined to watch another night before mentioning the 
affair to any one. As, however, this strange scene was 
acted over again, without her being able to discover the 
cause of it, she now mentioned the circumstance to the 
owner of the house and to her friend Bernard; and the 
former, who would not believe it, agreed to watch with 
her, which he did. The noise began as before, aitd he 
was so horrorstruck, that instead of entering the work- 
shop, as she wished him to do, he rushed into the street. 
Mrs. Hunn continued to inhabit the house the whole 
summer, and when referring afterwards to the adventure, 
she observed, that use was second nature; and that she 
was sure if any night these ghostly carpenters had not 
pursued their visionary labours, she should have been 
quit^ frightened, lest they should pay her a visit up 
stairs. 

From many recorded cases, I find the vulgar belief, 
that buried money is frequently the cause of these dis- 
turbances, strongly borne out by facts. This certainly 
does seem to us very strange; and can only be explained 
by the hypothesis suggested, that the soul awakens in 
the other world in exactly the same state in which it 
quitted this. 

In the above-mentioned instances of what are called 
haunted houses, there is generally nothing seen, but 
those are equally abundant where the ghostly visitor 
is visible. 

Two young ladies were passing the night in a house 
in the north, when the youngest, then a child, awoke, 
and saw an old man in a Kilmarnock nightcap, walking 
about their bed-room. She said, when telling the story 
in after-life, that she was not the least frightened, she 



HAUNTED HOUSES. 313 

^wras only surprised ! but she found that her sister, who 
was several years older than herself, was in a state of 
great terror. He continued some time moving about, 
and at last went to a chest of drawers, where there lay 
a parcel of buttons, belonging to a travelling tailor, who 
had been at work in the house. Whether the old man 
threw them down or not she could not say, but just then 
they all fell rattling off the drawers to the floor, where- 
upon he disappeared. The next morning, when they 
mentioned the circumstance, she observed that the 
family looked at each other in a significant manner; 
but it was not till she was older she learnt that the 
house was said to be haunted by this old man. " It 
never occurred to me," she said, " that it was a ghost- — 
who could have thought of a ghost in a Kilmarnock 
nightcap]" 

At the Leipsic fair, lodgings are often very scarce, 
and on one occasion a stranger, who had arrived late in 
the evening, had some difficulty in finding a bed. At 
length he found a vacant chamber in the house of a 
citizen; it was one they made no use of, but they 
said he was welcome to it; and weary and sleepy, he 
gladly accepted the offer. Fatigued as he was, however, 
he was disturbed by some unaccountable noises, of 
which he complained to his hosts in the morning. They 
pacified him by some excuses, but the next night, not 
long after he had gone to bed, he came down stairs in 
great haste, with his portmanteau on his shoulder, 
declaring he would not stay there another hour for 
1 the world; for that a lady in a strange old-fashioned 
| dress had come into the room with a dagger in her 
hand, and made threatening gestures at him. He ac- 
cordingly went away, and the room was shut up again; 
but some time afterwards a servant girl in the family 
! of this citizen being taken ill, they were obliged to put 
i her into that room, in order to separate her from the 
rest of the family. Here she recovered her health 
rapidly, and as she had never complained of any annoy* 



314 HAUNTED HOUSES. 

anee, she was asked, when she was quite well, whether 
anything particular had happened whilst she inhabited 
that chamber. " Oh, yes," she answered; " every night 
there came a strange lady into the room, who sat her- 
self on the bed and stroked me with her hand, and I 
believe it is to her I owe my speedy recovery; but 
I could never get her to speak to me — she only sighs 
and weeps." 

Not very long since, a gentleman set out, one fine 
midsummer's evening, when it is light all night in 
Scotland, to walk from Montrose to Brechin. As he 
approached a place called Dunn, he observed a lady 
walking on before, which, from the lateness of the hour, 
somewhat surprised him. Some time afterwards he 
was found by the early labourers lying on the ground, 
near the churchyard, in a state of insensibility. Ali 
he could tell them was, that he had followed this lady 
till she turned her head and looked round at him, when, 
seized with horror, he had fainted. " Oh," said they, 
"you have seen the lady of Dunn!" What is the 
legend attached to this lady of Dunn, I do not know. 

A Monsieur De S. had been violently in love with 
Hippolyte Clairon, the celebrated French actress, but 
she rejected his suit in so peremptory a manner, that 
even when he was at the point of death, she refused his 
earnest entreaties that she would visit him. Indignant 
at her cruelty, he declared he would haunt her, and he 
certainly kept his word. I believe she never saw his 
ghost, but he appears to have been always near her; at 
least, on several occasions when other people doubted 
the fact, he signalized his presence at her bidding by 
various sounds, and this wherever she happened to be 
at the moment. Sometimes it was a cry — at others .*» 
fahot, and at others a clapping of hands, or musi<- 
She seems to have been slow to believe in the extra - 
natural character of these noises; and even when she 
was ultimately convinced, to have been divided betwixt 
horror on the one hand and diversion at the oddness of 



HAUNTED HOUSES. 315 

ike circumstance on the other. The sounds were heard 
by everybody in her vicinity; and I am informed by 
Mr. Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, that the Margrave of 
Anspaeh, who was subsequently her lover, and Mr. 
Keppel Craven, were perfectly well acquainted with the 
circumstances of this haunting, and entertained no 
doubt of the facts above alluded to. 

The ghost, known by the designation of * : the white 
lady,*' which is frequently seen in different castles or 
palaces belonging to the Royal Family of Prussia, has 
been mentioned in another publication, I think. She 
was long supposed to be a Countess Agnes of Orla- 
muncle; but a picture of a princess, called Bertha, or 
Perchta von Rosenberg, discovered some time since, 
was thought so exceedingly to resemble the apparition, 
that it is now a disputed point which of the two ladies 
it is; or whether it is or is not the same apparition that 
is seen at different places. Neither of these ladies appear 
to have been very happy in their lives; but the opinion 
-of its being the Princess Bertha, who lived in the 
fifteenth century, was somewhat countenanced by the 
circumstance, that at a period when, in consequence of 
the war, an annual benefit which she had bequeathed 
to the poor was neglected, the apparition seemed to be 
miusually disturbed, and was seen more frequently. 
She is often observed before a death; and one of the 
Fredericks said, shortly before his decease, that he 
should u . not live long, for he had met the white lady/' 
She wears a widow's band and veil, but it is sufficiently 
transparent to show her features, which do not express 
happiness, but placidity. She has only been twice 
heard to speak. In December, 1628, she appeared m 
the palace at Berlin, and was heard to say, " VenL 
jiidica vivos et mortuos! Judicium mihi adhuc su- 
j)erest." — Come, judge the quick and the dead ! I wait 
for judgment. 

On the other occasion, which is more recent, one oi 
the princesses at the Castle of Neuhaus in Bohemia, 



316 HAUNTED HOUSES. 

was standing before a mirror, trying on a new head- 
dress, when on asking her waiting-maid what the hour 
was, the white lady suddenly stept from behind a screen 
and said, " Zehn uhr ist es ihr Liebden ! — It is ten 
o'clock, your love !" which is the mode in which the 
sovereign princes address each other, instead of "your 
highness." The princess was much alarmed, soon fell 
sick, and died in a few weeks. She has frequently 
evinced displeasure at the exhibition of impiety or vice: 
and there are numerous records of her different appear- 
ances to be found in the works of Balbinus, and of 
Erasmus Francisci; and in a publication called " The 
Iris," published in Frankfort, in 1819, the editor- 
George Doring, who is said to have been a man of great 
integrity, gives the following account of one of her later 
appearances, which he declares he received just as he 
gives it, from the lips of his own mother, on whose 
we. J. and judgment he could perfectly rely; and shortly 
before his death, an inquiry being addressed to him 
with regard to the correctness of the narration, he 
vouched for its authenticity. 

It seems that the elder sister of his mother was com- 
panion to one of the ladies of the court, and that the 
younger ones were in the habit of visiting her frequently. 
Two of these (Doring's mother and another), aged four- 
teen and fifteen, were once spending a week with her. 
when she being out and they alone with their needle 
work, chattering about the court diversions, they sud- 
denly heard the sound of a stringed instrument, like 
a harp, which seemed to proceed from behind a largv 
stove, that occupied one corner of the room. Half in 
fear and half in fun, one of the girls took a yard 
measure that lay beside them, and struck the spot, 
whereupon the music ceased, but the stick was wrested 
from her hand. She became alarmed; but the other, 
named Christina, laughed, and said, she must have 
led it, adding, that the music, doubtless, proceeded 
lrom tl e street, though they could not descry aiiy 



HAUNTED HOUSES. 31 7 

musicians. To get over her fright, of which she was halt 
ashamed, the former now ran out of the room, to visit 
a neighbour for a few minutes, but when she returned, 
she found Christina lying on the floor, in a swoon; who,., 
on being revived, with the aid of the attendants^, 
who heard a scream, related, that no sooner had her 
sister left her, than the sound was repeated, close to- 
the stove, and a white figure had appeared and ad- 
vanced towards her, whereupon she had screamed and; 
fainted. 

The lady who owned the apartments, flattered herself 
that this apparition betokened that a treasure was 
hidden under the stove, and, imposing silence on the 
girls, she sent for a carpenter, and had the planks lifted. 
The floor was found to be double, and below was a vaults 
from which issued a very unwholesome vapour, but no 
treasure was found, nor anything but a quantity of quick 
lime. The circumstance being now made known to the 
king, he expressed no surprise; he said that the appa- 
rition was doubtless that of a Countess of Orlamunde., 
who had been built up alive in that vault. She was the 
mistress of a Margrave of Brandenburgh, by whom she 
had two sons. When the prince became a widower, 
she expected he would marry her; but he urged, as an 
objection, that he feared, in that case, her sons might 
hereafter dispute the succession with the lawful heirs. 
In order to remove this obstacle out of her way, she: 
poisoned the children; and the Margrave, disgusted and 
alarmed, had her walled up in that vault for her pains. 
He added that she was usually seen every seven years, and' 
was preceded by the sound of a harp, on which instru- 
ment she had been a proficient ;_ and also that she more 
frequently appeared to children than to adults, as if the: 
love she had denied her own offspring in ] "fe was now he£ 
torment, and that she sought a reconciliation with child- 
hood in general, I know from the best authority that 
the fact of these appearances is not doubted by those 
who have the fullest opportunities of inquiry am* /avea* 



818 HAUNTED HOUSES. 

tigation; and I remember seeing in the English papers, 
a few years since, a paragraph copied from the foreign 
journals, to the effect that the White Lady had been 
seen again, I think at Berlin. 

The following very curious relation I have received 
from the gentleman to whom the circumstance occurred, 
who is a professional man, residing in London. 

" I was brought up by a grandfather and four aunts, 
all ghost-seers, and believers in supernatural appear- 
ances. The former had been a sailor, and was one of 
the crew that sailed round the world with Lord Anson. 
I remember, when I was about eight years old, that I 
was awakened by the screams of one of these ladies, 
with whom I was sleeping, which summoned all the 
family about her, to inquire the cause of the disturb- 
ance. She said, that she had t seen Nancy by the side 
of the bed, and that she was slipping into it.' We had 
scarcely got down stairs in the morning, before intelli- 
gence arrived, that that lady had died precisely at the 
moment my aunt said she saw her. Nancy was her 
brother's wife. Another of my aunts, who was mar- 
ried and had a large family, foretold my grandfather's 
death, at a time that we had no reason to apprehend it; 
he also had appeared at her bed-side. He was then 
alive and well; but he died a fortnight afterwards. 
But it would be tedious were I to enumerate half the 
instances I could recal of a similar description; and I 
will therefore proceed to the relation of what happened 
to myself. 

" I was, some few years since, invited to pass a day and 
night at the house of a friend in Hertfordshire, with 
whom T was intimately acquainted. His name was 
B., and he had formerly been in business as a saddler, in 
Oxford Street, where he had realized a handsome fortune, 
and had now retired to enjoy his otium cum dignitate 
in the rural and beautiful village of Sarratt. 

6< It was a gloomy Sunday, in the month of November 
when I mounted my horse for the journey, and there 



?5 



HAT7OTED HOUSES. 319 

was so mucli appearance of rain, that I should cer- 
tainly have selected some other mode of conveyance, had 
. not been desirous of leaving the animal in Mr. B.'s 
Straw-yard for the winter. Before I got as far as St. 
John's Wood, the threatening clouds broke, and by the 
1 time I reached Watford, I was completely soaked. 
However, I proceeded, and arrived at Sarratt before 
friend and his wife had returned from church. 
The moment they did so, they furnished me with dry 
clothes, and I was informed that we were to dine at the 
house of Mr. D., a very agreeable neighbour. I felt 
some little hesitation about presenting myself in such a 
costume, for I was decked out in a full suit of Mr. B.'s, 
who was a stout man, of six feet in height, whilst I am 
■ rather of the diminutive order; but my objections were 
I over-ruled ; we went, and my appearance added not a 
little to the hilarity of the party. At ten o'clock we 
separated, and I returned with Mr. and Mrs. B. to 
I their house, where I was shortly afterwards conducted 
| to a very comfortable bed-room. 

" Fatigued with my claff s ride, I was soon in bed, 

and soon asleep ; but I do not think I could have slept 

long, before I was awakened by the vio]ent barking of 

dogs. 1 found that the noise had disturbed others as 

well as myself, for I heard Mr. B., who was lodged in 

; the adjoining room, open his window and call to them 

; to be quiet. They were obedient to his voice, and a* 

! soon as quietness ensued, I dropped asleep again ; but I 

was again awakened by an extraordinary pressure upon 

I my feet; that I was perfectly aivake, I declare; the light 

I that stood in the chimney-corner shone strongly across 

the foot of the bed, and I saw the figure of a well-dressed 

man in the act of stooping, and supporting himself in 

so doing by the bed-clothes. He had on a blue coat, 

with bright gilt buttons, but I saw no head ; the cm-tains 

at the foot of the bed, which were partly looped back,. 

just hung so as to conceal that part of his person. At 

first, I thought it was my host, and as I had dropped my 



320 HAUNTED HOUSES. 

dotbes, as is my habit, on the floor, at the foot of the 
bed, I supposed he was come to look after them, which 
rather surprised me : but, just as I had raised myself 
•upright in bed, and was about to inquire into the occasion 
of his visit, the figure passed on. I then recollected 
that I had locked the door; and, becoming somewhat 
puzzled, I jumped out of bed; but 1 could see nobody; 
and on examining the room, I found no means of 
ingress but the door through which I had entered, and 
•one other; both of which were locked on the inside. 
Amazed and puzzled, I got into bed again, and sat some 
time ruminating on the extraordinary circumstance, 
"when it occurred to me that I had not looked under 
the bed. So I got out again, fully expecting to find 
my visitor, whoever he was, there; but I was disap- 
pointed. So after looking at my watch, and ascertain- 
ing that it was ten minutes past two, I stepped into 
bed again, hoping now to get some rest. But, alas! 
sleep was banished for that night; and after turning 
from side to side, and making vain endeavours at for- 
getfulness, I gave up the point, and lay till the clocks 
struck seven, perplexing my brain with the question of 
who my midnight visitor could be; and also how he had 
got in and how he had got out of my room. About eight 
o'clock, I met my host and his wife at the breakfast- table, 
■when, in answer to their hospitable inquiries of how I 
had passed the night, I mentioned, first, that I had 
been awaked by the barking of some dogs, and that I 
had heard Mr. B. open his window and call to them. 
He answered that two strange dogs had got into the yard 
and had disturbed the others. I then mentioned my 
midnight visitor, expecting that they would either ex- 
plain the circumstance, or else laugh at me and declare I 
must have dreamt it. But, to my surprise, my story 
was listened to with grave attention ; and they related 
to me the tradition with which this spectre, for 
such I found they deemed it to be, was supposed to be 
-connected. This was to the effect, that many years 



HAUNTED HOUSES. 321 

ago, a gentleman so attired, had been murdered there, 
under some frightful circumstances; and that his head had 
been cut off. On perceiving that I was very unwilling 
to accept this explanation of the mystery — for, in spite 
of my family peculiarity, I had always been an entire 
disbeliever in supernatural appearances — they begged 
me to prolong my visit for a day or two, when they 
would introduce me to the rector of the parish, who 
. juld furnish me with such evidence with regard to 

'umstances of a similar nature, as would leave no 
>ubt on my mind as to the possibility of their oceur- 
e. But I had made an engagement to dine at Wat- 
ford, on my way back ; and I confess, moreover, that 
after what I had heard, I did not feel disposed to 
encounter the chance of another visit from the myste- 
rious stranger : so I declined the proffered hospitality, 
and took my leave. 

" Some time after this, I happened to be dining in 
— Street, in company with some ladies resident in 
the same comity, when chancing to allude to my visit 
to Sarratt, I added, that I had met with a very extra- 
ordinary adventure there, which I had never been able 
to account for; when one of these ladies immediately 
said, that she hoped I had not had a visit from the 
headless gentleman, in a blue coat and gilt buttons, 
who was said to have been been by many people in that 
house. 

lc Such is the conclusion of this marvellous tale as 
egards myself; and I can only assure you that I haTe 
related facts as they occurred ; and that I had never 
da word about this apparition in my life, till. Mr. 
B. related to me the tradition above alluded to. Still, 
as I am no believer in supernatural appearances, I am 
constrained to suppose that the whole affair was the 
product of my imagination. 

" I must add, that Mr. B. mentioned some strange 
circumstances connected with another house in the 
county, inhabited by a Mi\ M., which were corro* 



322 HAUNTED HOUSES. 

borated by the ladies above alluded to. Both parties 
agreed that, from the unaccountable noises, &c. &c,, 
which were heard there, that gentleman had the greatest 
difficulty in persuading any servants to remain with hira. 

""(Signed) "A. W. M. 

« 0— Street, 
"5th September, 1846." 

This is one of those curious instances of deteraiined 
scepticism that full y justify the patriarch's prediction. 

The following interesting letter, written by a mem- 
ber of a very distinguished English family, will furnish 
its own explanation: — 

"As you express a wish to know what degree of 
credit is to be attached to a garbled tale, which has 
been sent forth, after a lapse of between thirty and 
forty years, as an ' accredited ghost-story/ I will state 
the facts as they were recalled to my mind last year, 
by a daughter of Sir William A. C, who sent the book 
to me, requesting me to tell her if there was any foun- 
dation for the story, which she could scarcely believe, 
since she had never heard my mother allude to it. I 
read the narrative with surprise, it being evidently not 
furnished by any of the family, nor indeed by any one 
who was with us at the time! yet though full of mis- 
takes in names, <fec. &e., some particulars come so near 
the truth as to puzzle me. The facts are as follow :— 

" Sir James, my mother, with myself and my brother 
Charles, went abroad towards the; end of the year 1786. 
After trying several different places, we determined to 
settle at Lille, where we found the masters particularly 
good, and where we had also letters of introduction to 
several of the best French families. There Sir James 
left us, and after passing a few days in an uncomfort- 
able lodging, we engaged a nice large family house, 
which we liked much, and which we obtained at a very 
low rent, even for that part of the world 



HAUNTED HOUSES. 323 

* About three weeks after we were established in 
our new residence, I walked one day, with my mother, 
to the bankers, for the purpose of delivering our letter 
of credit from Sir Robert Hemes, and drawing some 
money, which being paid in heavy five-franc pieces, we 
found we could not carry, and therefore requested the 
banker to send, saying. ' we live in the Place Du Lion. 
D'or.' Whereupon, he looked surprised, %nJ observed 
that he knew of no house there fit for us, c except, in- 
deed,' he added, 'the one that has been long unin- 
habited, on account of the revenant that walks about it.' 
He said this quite seriously, and in a natural tone of 
voice; in spite of which we laughed, and were quite 
entertained at the idea of a ghost; but, at the same- 
time, we begged him not to mention the thing to our 
servants, lest they should take any fancies into their 
heads ; and my mother and I resolved to say nothing 
about the matter to any one. 'I suppose it is the 
ghost/ said my mother, laughing, 'that wakes us so- 
| often by walking over our heads.' We had, in fact, 
been awakened several nights by a heavy foot, which 
| we supposed to be that of one of the men-servants, o£ 
whom we had three English and four French; o£ 
women-servants we had five English, and all the rest 
were French. The English ones, men and women, 
every one of them, returned ultimately to England, 
■with us. 

"A night or two afterwards, being again awakened 
by the step, my mother asked Creswell, ( who slept in 
the room above usT ' No one, my lady,' she rejDlied, 
6 it is a large empty garret.' 

" About a week or ten days after this, Creswell came 
j to my mother, one morning, and told her that all tho 
| French servants talked of going away, because there 
I was a revenant in the house; adding, that there seemed 
j to be a strange story attached to the place, which was 
j said, together with some other property, to have be- 
i longed to a young man, whose guardian, who was also 



324 HAUNTED HOUSES. 

his uncle, had treated him cruelly, and confined him in 
an iron cage ; and as he had subsequently disappeared, 
it was conjectured he had been murdered. This uncle, 
after inheriting the property, had suddenly quitted the 
house, and sold it to the father of the man of whom we 
had hired it. Since that period, though it had been 
several times let, nobody had ever stayed in it above a 
week or two ; and, for a considerable time past, it had 
had no tenant at all. 

* ' And do you really believe all this nonsense, Ores- 
well V said my mother. 

" c Well, I don't know, my lady,' answered she; 'but 
there is the iron cage in the garret over your bed-room, 
where you may see it, if you please.' 

" Of course we rose to go, and as just at that moment 
an old officer, with his Croix de St. Louis, called on us. 
we invited him to accompany us, and we ascended 
together. We found, as Greswell had said, a large 
empty garret, with bare brick walls, and in the further 
corner of it stood an iron cage, such as wild beasts are 
kept in, only higher; it was about four feet square, and 
eight in height, and there was an iron ring in the wall 
at the back, to which was attached an old rusty chain, 
with a collar fixed to the end of it ! I confess it made 
my blood creep, when I thought of the possibility of 
any human being having inhabited it ! And our old 
friend expressed as much horror as ourselves, assuring 
us that it must certainly have been constructed for 
some such dreadful purpose. As, however, we were 
no believers in ghosts, we all agreed that the noises 
must proceed from somebody who had an interest in 
keeping the house empty; and since it was very dis- 
agreeable to imagine that there were secret means of 
entering it by night, we resolved, as soon as possible, to 
bok out for another residence, and, in the mean time, 
*o say nothing about the matter to anybody. About 
ten days after this determination, my mother, observing 
one morning that Creswell, when she came to dress 



HATJPTTED HOUSES. 325 

her, looked exceedingly pale and ill, inqni red if anything 
was the matter with her ? * Indeed, my lady,' answered 
-■no, ■ we have been frightened to death ; and neither I 
nor Mrs. Marsh can sleep again in the room we are 
now in.' 

" • Well, 5 returned my mother, f you shall both come 
and sleep in the little spare room next us; but what 
lias alarmed you ¥ 

" ' Some one, my lady, went through our room in the 
night; we both saw the figure, but we covered our 
heads with the bed-clothes, and lay in a dreadful fright 
till morning.' 

" On hearing this, I could not help laughing, upon 
which Creswell burst into tears; and seeing how ner- 
vous she was, we comforted her, by saying, we had heard 
of a good house, and that we should very soon abandon 
our present habitation. 

" A few nights afterwards, my mother requested me 
and Charles to go to her bed-room, and fetch her frame, 
that she might prepare her work for the next day. It 
was after supper ; and we were ascending the stairs by 
the light of a lamp which was always kept burning, 
when we- saw going up before us, a tall, thin figure, 
with hair flowing down his back, and wearing a loose 
powdering gown. We both at once concluded it was 
my sister Hannah, and called out; * It wont do, Han- 
nah ! you cannot frighten us f Upon which the figure 
turned into a recess in the wall ; but as there was no- 
body there, when we passed, we concluded that Hannah 
had contrived, somehow or other, to slip away and make 
her escape by the back stairs. On telling this to my 
mother, however, she said, ' It is very odd ! for Hannah 
went to bed with a head-ache before you came in from 
your walk;' and sure enough, on going to her room, 
there we found her fast asleep ; and Alice, who was at 
work there, assured us that she had been so for more 
than an hour. On mentioning this circumstance to 
Creswell, she turned quite pale, and exclaimed that 



326 HAUNTED HOUSES. 

that was precisely the figure she and Marsh had seen 
in their bed-room. 

" About this time, my brother Harry came to spend 
a few days with us, and we gave him a room up another 
pair of stairs, at the opposite end of the house. A 
morning or two after his arrival, when he came down 
to breakfast, he asked my mother, angrily, whether she 
thought he went to bed drunk and could not put out his 
own candle, that she sent those French rascals to watch 
him. My mother assured him that she had never 
thought of doing such a thing ; but he persisted in the 
accusation, adding, ' last night 1 jumped up and opened 
the door, and by the light of the moon, through the 
skylight, I saw the fellow in his loose gown at the 
bottom of the stairs. If I had not been in my shirt, I 
would have gone after him, and made him remember 
coming to watch me.' 

" We were now preparing to quit the house, having 
secured another, belonging to a gentleman who was 
going to spend some time in Italy; but a few days 
before our removal, it happened, that a Mr. and Mrs. 
Atkyns, some English friends of ours, called, to whom 
we mentioned these strange circumstances, observing, 
how extremely unpleasant it wa? to live in a house 
that somebody found means of getting into, though 
how they contrived it we could not discover, nor what 
their motive could be, except it was to frighten us; 
< bserving, that nobody could sleep in the room Marsh 
; Ad Creswell had been obliged to give up. Upon this, 
Mrs. Atkyns laughed heartily, and said, that she should 
.of all things, to sleep there, if my mother would 
How her, adding, that, with her little terrier, she should 
not be afraid of any ghost that ever appeared. As my 
mother had, of course, no objection to this fancy of hera 
Mrs. Atkyns requested her husband to ride home witL 
the groom, in order that the latter might bring he* 
night-things before the gates of the town were shut, aa 
they were then residing a little way in the country 



I 



HAUNTED HOUSES. 327 

Mr. Atkyns smiled, and said she was very bold ; but 
lie made no difficulties, and sent the things, and his wife 
retired with her dog to her room when we retired to 
ours, .apparently without the least apprehension. 

" "When she came down in the morning we were im- 
mediately struck at seeing her look very ill; and on 
inquiring if she, too, had been frightened, she said she 
had been awakened in the night by something moving 
in her room, and that, by the light of the night lamp, 
she saw most distinctly a figure, and that the dog, which 
was very spirited and flew at everything, never stirred, 
although she had endeavoured to make him. We saw 
clearly that she had been very much alarmed; and 
when Mr. Atkyns came and endeavoured to dissipate 
the feeling by persuading her that she might have 
dreamt it, she got quite angry. We could not help 
thinking that she had actually seen something; and 
my mother said, after she was gone, that though she 
could not bring herself to believe it was really a ghost, 
still she earnestly hoped that she might get out of the 
house without seeing this figure which frightened people 
so much. 

"We were now within three days of the one fixed 
for our removal; I had been taking a long ride, and, 
being tired, had fallen asleep the moment I lay down, 
5ut in the middle of the night I was suddenly awakened 
— I cannot tell by what, for the step over our heads we 
had become so used to that it no longer disturbed us. 
Well, I awoke ; I had been lying with my face towards 
my mother, who was asleep beside me, and, as one 
usually does on awaking, I turned to the other side, 
where, the weather being warm, the curtain of the bed 
was undrawn, as it was also at the foot, and I saw 
standing by a chest of drawers, which were betwixt me 
and the window, a thin, tall figure, in a loose pow- 
dering gown, one arm resting on the drawers, and the 
face turned towards me. I saw it quite distinctly by 
the night-light, which burnt clearly ; it was a long, 



32 8 HAUNTED HOUSES. 

thin, pale, young face, with, oh ! such a melancholy 
expression as can never be effaced from my memory I 
I was, certainly, very much frightened ; but my great 
horror was lest my mother should awake and see the 
figure. I turned my head gently towards her, and 
neard her breathing high in a sound sleep. Just then 
the clock on the stairs struck four. I dare say it was 
nearly an hour before I ventured to look again, and 
when I did take courage to turn my eyes towards the 
drawers there was nothing, yet I had not heard the 
slightest sound, though I had been listening with the 
greatest intensity. * f- 

" As you may suppose, I never closed my eyes again; 
and glad I was when Creswell knocked at the door, as 
she did every morning, for we always locked it, and 
it was my business to get out of bed and let her in. 
But on this occasion, instead of doing so, I called out, 
' come in ; the door is not fastened,' upon which she 
answered that it was, and I was obliged to get out of 
bed and admit her as usual. 

" When I told my mother what had happened she 
was very grateful to me for not waking her, and 
commended me much for my resolution; but as she was 
always my first object, that ras not to be wondered at. 
She, however, resolved not to risk another night in the 
house, and we got out of it that very day, after insti- 
tuting, with the aid of the servants, a thorough search, 
with a view to ascertain if there was any possible means 
of getting into the rooms except by the usual modes of 
ingress; but our search was vain; none could be dis- 
covered. 

" I think, from the errors in the names, <fcc, that 
the publisher of the ' Accredited Ghost Stories' must 
have obtained his account from the inhabitants of 
Lille." 

Considering the number of people that were in the 
house, the fearlessness of the family, and their disin- 
clination to believe in what is called the supernatural, 



iIAUOTED HOUSES. 32$ 

cLer with, the great interest the owner of this large 
and handsome residence must have had in discovering 
the trick, if there had been one, I think it is difficult 
to find any other explanation of this strange story than 
that the sad and disappointed spirit of this poor in- 
jured, and probably murdered boy, had never been 
disengaged from its earthly relations, to which regret 
for its frustrated hopes and violated rights still held it 
attached. 

There is a story told by Pliny the younger, of a 
house at Athens in which nobody could live, from its 
being haunted. At length the philosopher Athena- 
dorus took it; and the first night he was there he 
seems to have comported himself very much as the 
. us Mrs. Canning did on a similar occasion, at 
Plymouth. He sent his servants to bed, and set him- 
self seriously to work with his writing materials, deter- 
mined that fancy should not be left free to play him 
false. For some time all was still, and his mind was 
wholly engaged in his labours when he heard a sound 
like the rattling of chains — which was the sound that 
had frightened everybody out of the house ; but Athe- 
nadorus closed his ears, kept his thoughts collected, 
and wrote on, without lifting up his eyes. The noise, 
however, increased ; it approached the door ; it entered 
the rooin ; then he looked round, and beheld the figure 
of an old man, lean, haggard, and dirty, with dis- 
hevelled hair, and a long beard, who held up his 
finger and beckoned imn. Athenaclorus made a gesture 
with his own hand in return, signifying that he should 
wait, and went on with his writing. Then the figure 
advanced and shook his chains over the philosopher's 
iieael, who, on looking up, saw him beckoning as be- 
lore; whereupon he arose and followed him. The ap- 
parition walked slowly, as if obstructed by his chains, 
and having conducted him to a certain spot m tho 
■court, which separated the two divisions of an ancient 
Greek house, he suddenly disappeared. Aiheii&dorus 



330 HAUNTED HOUSES. 

gathered together some grass and leaves, in order to 
mark the place, and the next day he recommended the 
authorities to dig there, which they did, and found the 
skeleton of a human being encircled with chains. It 
being taken up, and the rights of sepulture duly per- 
formed, the house was no longer disturbed. 

This was, probably, some poor prisoner also; and in 
Ms desire to direct notice to his body we see the pre- 
judices of his age and country surviving dissolution. 
Grose, the antiquary, who is, as I have before observed, 
very facetious on the subject of ghosts, remarks that, 
" Dragging chains is not the custom of English ghosts, 
chains and black vestments being chiefly the accoutre- 
ments of foreign spectres, seen in arbitrary govern- 
ments." Now, this is a very striking observation. 
Grose's studies had, doubtless, introduced him to many 
histories of this description; and the different charac- 
teristics of these apparitions under different govern- 
ments, is a circumstance in remarkable conformity with 
the notions of those who have been led to take a much 
more serious view of the subject. They appear as they 
lived, and as they conceive of themselves; and when 
rapport or receptivity enable them to see, and to render 
themselves visible to those yet living in the flesh, it 
is by so appearing that they tell their story, and ask 
for sympathy and assistance. I say enable them to see, 
because there seem many reasons for concluding that 
they do not, under ordinary circumstances, see us, any 
more than we see them. Whether it be rapport with 
certain inhabitants, or whether the phenomenon be 
dependent on certain periods, or any other condition, 
we cannot tell: but I have met with several accounts 
of houses in which an annoyance of this sort has 
recurred more than once, at different intervals, some- 
times at a distance of seven or ten years, the interme- 
diate time being quite free from it. 

One of the most melancholy and impressive circum- 
stances of this sort I have met with, occurred to Mrs. 



HAUNTED HOUSES. 331 

L., a lady with whose family I am acquainted; Mrs L. 
herself having been kind enough to furnish me with the 
particulars: — A few years since, she took a furnished 
house in Stevenson Street, North Shields, and she had 
been in it a very few hours, before she was perplexed 
by hearing feet in the passage, though, whenever she 
opened the door, she could see nobody. She went to 
the kitchen, and asked the servant if she had not heard 
the same sound; she said she had not, but there seemed 
to be strange noises in the house. When Mrs. L. went 
to bed, she could not go to sleep for the noise of a 
child's rattle, which seemed to be inside her curtains. 
It rattled round her head, first on one side then on the 
other; then there were sounds of feet and of a child 
crying, and a woman sobbing; and, in short, so many 
strange noises, that the servant became frightened, and 
went away. The next girl Mrs. L. engaged came from 
Leith, and was a stranger to the place; but she had 
only passed a night in the house, when she said to her 
mistress, " This is a troubled house you've got into, 
Ma'am," and she described, amongst the rest, that she 
had repeatedly heard her own name called by a voice 
near her, though she could see nobody. 

One night Mrs. L. heard a voice, like nothing human, 
close to her, cry, " Weep ! Weep ! Weep !" Then 
I there was a sound like some one struggling for breath, 
aud again, " Weep ! Weep ! Weep !" Then the gasp- 
ing, and a third time, " Weep ! Weep ! Weep !" She 
stood still, and looked, steadfastly on the spot whence 
the voice proceeded, but could see nothing; and her 
I little boy, who held her hand, kept saying, "What is 
that, Mamma ! What is that ?" She describes the 
sound as most frightful. All the noises seemed to sug- 
gest the idea of childhood, and of a woman in trouble* 
One night, when it was crying round her bed, Mrs. L. 
ook courage and adjured it; upon which the noise 
eased for that time, but there was no answer. Mr. 
* was at sea when she took the house, and when he 

Y 



332 HAUNTED HOUSES. 

came home, he laughed at the story at first, but soon 
became so convinced the account she gave was correct, 
that he wanted to have the boards taken up, because 
from the noises seeming to hover much about one spot, 
he thought per] japs some explanation of the mystery 
might be found. But Mrs. L. objected that if any- 
thing of a painful nature were discovered she should 
not be able to continue in the house; and as she must 
pay the year's rent, she wished, if possible, to make out 
the time. 

She never saw anything but twice; once, the appear- 
ance of a child seemed to fall from the ceiling, close to 
her, and then disappear; and another time she saw a 
child run into a closet in a room at the top of the 
house; and it was most remarkable that a small door 
in that room, which was used for going out on the 
roof, always stood open. However often they shut it, 
it was opened again immediately by an unseen hand, 
even before they got out of the room, and this con- 
tinued the whole time they were in the house; whilst 
night and day, some one in creaking shoes was heard 
pacing backwards and forwards in the room over Mr. 
and Mrs. L.'s heads. 

At length the year expired, and, to their great relief, 
they quitted the house: but five or six years after- 
wards, a person who had bought it having taken up the 
floor of that upper room to repair it, there wa^ found, 
close to the small door above alluded to, the skeleton 
of a child. It was then remembered, that some years 
before, a gentleman of somewhat dissolute habits had 
resided there, and that he was supposed to have been 
on very intimate terms with a young woman servant, 
who lived with him; but there had been no suspicion 
of anything more criminal. 

About six years ago, Mr. C, a gentleman, engaged 
in business in London, heard of a good country house 
in the neighbourhood of the metropolis, which was to 
be had at a low rent. It was rather an old-fashioned 



HAUNTED HOUSES. 333 

place, and was surrounded by a garden and pleasure- 
ground ; and having taken a lease of it for seven years, 
furnished as it was, his family removed thither, and he 
joined them once or twice a week, as his business per- 
mitted. 

They had been some considerable time in the house 
without the occurrence of anything remarkable, when 
one evening, towards dusk, Mrs. C, on going into 
what was called the oak bed-room, saw a female figure 
near one of the windows. It was apparently a young 
woman with dark hair hanging over her shoulders, a 
silk petticoat, and a short white robe, and she ap- 
peared to be looking eagerly through the window, as 
if expecting somebody. Mrs. C. clapped her hand 
upon her eyes " as thinking she had seen something 
she ought not to have seen," and when she looked 
again the figure had disappeared. 

Shortly after this, a young girl who filled the situa- 
tion of under nursery-maid, came to her in great agi- 
tation, saying that she had had a terrible fright, from 
seeing a very ugly old woman looking in upon her as she 
passed the window in the lobby. The girl was tremb- 
ling violently, and almost crying, so that Mrs. C. 
entertained no doubts of the reality of her alarm. She, 
however, thought it advisable to laugh her out of her 
fear, and went with her to the window, which looked 
into a closed court, but there was no one there; 
neither had any of the other servants seen such a 
person. Soon after this the family began to find them- 
selves disturbed with strange and frequently very loud 
arises during the night. Amongst the rest, there was 
something like the beating of a crow-bar upon the 
pump in the above-mentioned court; but, search as 
they would, they could discover no cause for the sound. 
One day, when Mr. C had brought a friend from 
London, to stay the night with him, Mrs. C. thought 
proper to go up to the oak bed-room, where the 
stranger was to sleep, for the purpose of inspecting 



334 HAUNTEI> HOUSES. 

the arrangements for his comfort, when to her great 
surprise, some one seemed to follow her up to the fire- 
place, though, on turning round, there was nobody to 
be seen. She said nothing about it, however, and re- 
turned below, where her husband and the stranger 
were sitting. Presently one of the servants (not the 
one mentioned above) tapped at the door, and re- 
quested to speak with her, and Mrs. C. going out, she 
fcold her, in great agitation, that in going up stairs 
to the visitors room, a footstep had followed all the 
way to the fire-place, although she could see nobody. 
Mrs. C. said something soothing, and that matter 
passed, she, herself, being a good deal puzzled, but still 
unwilling to admit the idea that there was anything 
extra-natural in these occurrences. Repeatedly after 
this, these footsteps were heard in different parts of 
the house, when nobody was to be seen; and often., 
whilst she was lying in bed, she heard them distinctly 
approach her door, when, being a very courageous woman, 
she would start out with a loaded pistol in her hand, 
but there was never any one to be seen. At length it 
was impossible to conceal from herself and her servants 
that these occurrences were of an extraordinary nature, 
and the latter, as may be supposed, felt very uncom- 
fortable. Amongst other unpleasant things, whilst sitting 
all together in the kitchen, they used to see the latch 
lifted, and the door open, though no one came in that 
they could see; and when Mr. C. himself watched for 
these events, although they took place, and he was 
quite on the alert, he altogether failed in detecting 
any visible agent. 

One night, the same servant who had heard the 
footsteps following her to the bed-room fire-place, 
happening to be asleep in Mrs. C.'s chamber, she 
became much disturbed, and was heard to murmur 
" Wake me ! Wake me !" as if in great mental anguish. 
Being aroused, she told her mistress a dream she had 
had, which seemed to throw some light upon these 



HAUKTED HOUSES. 335 

mysteries. She thought she was in the oak bed-room, 
and at one end of it she saw a young female in an old- 
fashioned dress, with long dark hair; whilst in another 
part of the room, was a very ugly old woman, also it* 
old-fashioned attire. The latter addressing the former, 
said, " What have you done with the child, Emily 1 
What have you done with the child ?" To which the 
younger figure answered, " Oh, I did not kill it. He 
was preserved, and grew up, and joined the — Regi- 
ment, and went to India.," Then addressing the sleeper, 
the young lady continued, " I have never spoken to 
mortal before; but I will tell you all. My name is 
Miss Black; and this old woman is Nurse Black. 
Black is not her name; but we call her so because she 
has been so long in the family." Here the old woman 
interrupted the speaker by coming up and laying her 
hand on the dreaming girl's shoulder, whilst she said 
something; but she could not remember what, for feel- 
ing excruciating pain from the touch, she had been so 
far aroused as to be sensible she was asleep, and to beg 
to be wholly awakened. 

As the old woman seemed to resemble the figure 
that one of the other servants had seen looking into 
the window, and the young one resembled that she had 
herself seen in the oak chamber, Mrs. C. naturally con- 
cluded that there was something extraordinary about 
this dream; and she consequently took an early oppor- 
tunity of inquiring in the neighbourhood what was 
known as to the names or circumstances of the former 
inhabitants of this house; and after much investigation 
she learnt, that about seventy or eighty years before, it} 
had been in the possession of a Mrs. Bavenhall, who 
had a niece named Miss Black, living with her. This 
niece, Mrs. C. supposed might be the younger of the 
two persons who had been seen. Subsequently she saw 
her again in the same room, wringing her hands, and look- 
ing with a mournful significance to one corner. They 
had the boards taken up on that spot; but nothing was 
found. 



J3S HALTED HOUSES. 

One of the most curious incidents connected with 
this story remains to be told. After occupying the 
house three years, they were preparing to quit it — not 
on account of its being haunted, but for other reasons 
— when, on awaking one morning, a short time before 
their departure, Mrs. 0. saw standing at the foot of her 
bed, a dark-complexioned man, in a working dress, a 
fustian jacket and red comforter round his neck, who, 
however, suddenly disappeared. Mr. C. was lying 
beside her at the time, but asleep. This was the last 
apparition that was seen; but the strange thing is, that 
a few days after this, it being necessary to order in a 
small quantity of coals, to serve till their removal, Mr. 
C. undertook to perform the commission on his way to 
London. Accordingly, the next day she mentioned to 
him, that the coals had arrived; which he said was 
very fortunate, since he had entirely forgotten to order 
them. Wondering whence they had come, Mrs. C. 
hereupon inquired of the servants, who none of them 
knew anything about the matter; but, on interrogating 
a person in the village by whom they had frequently 
been provided with this article, he answered, that they 
had been ordered by a dark man, in a fustian jacket 
and a red comforter, who had called for the purpose ! 

After this last event, Mr. and Mrs. 0. quitted the 
house; but I have heard that its subsequent tenants 
encountered some similar annoyances, although I have 
no means of ascertaining the particulars. 

But, perhaps, one of the most remarkable cases of 
haunting in modern times, is that of Willington, near 
Newcastle, in my account of which, however, T find 
myself anticipated by Mr. Howitt; and as he has had 
the advantage of visiting the place, which I have not, 
I shall take the liberty of borrowing his description. of 
it, prefacing the account with the following letter from 
Mr. Procter, the owner of the house, who, it will be 
seen, vouches for the general authenticity of the nar- 
rative. The letter was written in answer to one from 



HAUNTED HOUSES. 337 

me. requesting some more precise information than I 
had been able to obtain. 

H Josh. Proctor hopes C. Crowe will excuse her not$ 
having remained two weeks unanswered, during which, 
time, J. P. has been from home, or particularly engaged. 
Feeling averse to add to the publicity the circumstances 
occurring in his house, at Willington, have already ob- 
tained, J. P. would rather not turnish additional par- 
ticulars; but if C. C. is not in possession of the number 
of 'Howitt's Journal/ which contains a variety oi 
details on the subject, he will be glad to forward her 
one. He would at the same time, assure 0. Crowe of 
the strict accuracy of that portion of W. Howitt's 
narrative which is extracted from *' Richardson's Table 
Book.' W. Hewitt's statements derived from his re-» 
collection of verbal communications with branches of 
J. Procter's family, are likewise essentially correct, 
though, as might be expected in some degree, erroneous 
circumstantially. 

u J. P. takes leave to express his conviction, that the 
unbeliel of the educated classes, in apparitions of the 
deceased, and kindred phenomena, is not grounded on 
a fair philosophic examination of the facts which have 
induced the popular belief of all ages and countries; and 
that it will be found, by succeeding ages, to have been 
nothing better than unreasoning and unreasonable pre- 

dice. 

a Willington, near Newcastle-on-Tyne, 
7th mo. 22, 1847." 

"VISITS TO REMARKABLE PLACES. 

BY WILLIAM HOWITT. 

THE HAUNTED HOUSE AT WILLINGTON, NEAR NEW- 
CASTLE-ON-TYNE. 

"We have of late years settled it as an established 



3?0 HAUNTED HOUSES. 

far. I, tin 1 1 gliosis and haunted houses were the empty 
creation of ignorant times. We have comfortably per- 
suaded ourselves that such fancies only hovered in the 
twilight of superstition, and that in these enlightened 
days they had vanished for ever. How often has it 
been triumphantly referred to, as a proof that all such 
things were the offspring of ignorance — that nothing of 
the kind is heard of now ? What shall we say, then, to 
the following facts ? Here we have ghosts and a 
haunted house still. We have them in the face of our 
vaunted noon-day light, in the midst of a busy and 
a populous neighbourhood, in the neighbourhood of a 
large and most intelligent town, and in a family neither 
ignorant, nor in any other respect superstitious. For 
years have these ghosts and hauntings disturbed the 
quiet of a highly respectable family, and continue to 
haunt and disturb, spite of the incredulity of the wise, 
the investigations of the curious, and the anxious vigi- 
lance of the suffering family itself. 

" Between the railway running from Newcastle-on- 
Tyne to North Shields, and the river Tyne, there lie 
in a hollow some few cottages, a parsonage, and a mill 
and a miller's house. These constitute the hamlet of 
Willington. Just above these the railway is carried 
across the valley on lofty arches, and from it you look 
down on the mill and cottages, lying at a considerable 
depth below. The mill is a large steam flour mill, like 
a factory, and the millers house stands near it, but 
not adj oining it. None of the cottages which lie between 
these premises and the railway, either, are in contact 
with them. The house stands on a sort of little pro- 
montory, round which runs the channel of a water- 
course, which appears to fill and empty with the tides. 
On on^. side of the mill and house, slopes away, upwards, 
a field, to a considerable distance, where it is terminated 
by other enclosures; on the other stands a considerable 
extent of ballast-hill, i. e., one of the numerous hills 
on the banks of the Tyne, made by the deposit of 



HAUNTED HOUSES. 339 

ballast from the vessels trading thither. At a distance 
the top of the mill seems about level with the country 
around it. The place lies about half-way between 
^Newcastle and North Shields. 

" This mill is, I believe, the property of, and is worked 
by, Messrs. Unthank and Procter. Mr. Joseph Procter 
resides on the spot in the house just by the mill, as 
already stated. He is a member of the Society of 
Friends, a gentleman in the very prime of life; and his 
wife, an intelligent lady, is of a family of Friends in 
Carlisle. They have several young children. This very 
respectable and well-informed family, belonging to a 
sect which of all others is most accustomed to control, 
to regulate, and to put down even the imagination — the 
last people in the world, as it would appear, in fact, to 
be affected by any mere imaginary terrors or impressions, 
have for years been persecuted by the most extraor- 
dinary noises and apparitions. 

" The house is not an old house, as will appear; it 
was built about the year 1800. It has no particularly 
spectral look about it. Seeing it in passing, or within, 
ignorant of its real character, one should by no means 
say that it was a place likely to have the reputation of 
being haunted. Yet looking down from the railway, 
and seeing it and the mill lying in a deep hole, one 
might imagine various strange noises likely to be heard 
in such a place in the night, ftoiii vessels on the river, 
from winds sweeping and howling down the gully in 
which it stands, from engines in the neighborhood 
connected with coal mines, one of which, I could not 
tell where, was making, at the time I was there, a wild 
sighing noise, as I stood on the hill above. There is not 
any passage, however, known of under the house, by 
which subterraneous noises could be heard, nor are they 
merely noises that are heard; distinct apparitions are 
declared to be seen. 

Spite of the unwillingness of Mr. Procter that these 
mysterious circumstances should become quite public, 



340 HAUNTED HOUSES, 

and averse as he is to make known himself these strange 
visitations, they were of such a nature that they soon, 
became rumoured over the whole neighbourhood. 
Numbers of people hurried to the place to inquire into 
the truth of them, and at length a remarkable occurrence 
brought them into print. What this occurrence was. 
the pamphlet which appeared, and which was afterwards 
reprinted in ' The Local Historian s Table-book,' pub- 
lished by Mr. M. A. Richardson, of Newcastle, and 
which I here copy, will explain. It will be seen 
that the writer of this article has the fullest faith in 
the reality of what he relates, as indeed vast numbers 
of the best-informed inhabitants of the neighbourhood 
Lave. 

" AUTHENTIC ACCOUNT OF A VISIT TO THE HAUNTED 
HOUSE AT WILLINC4TON. 

" Were we to draw an inference from the number of 
cases of reported visitations from the invisible world 
that have been made public of late, we might be led ' 
imagine that the days of supernatural agency wer 
about to recommence, and that ghosts and hobgoblin 
were about to resume their sway over the fears of man- 
kind. Did we, however, indulge such an apprehensior 
a glance at the current tone of the literature and philo- 
sophy of the day, when treating of these subjects, 
would show a measure of unbelief regarding them as 
scornful and uncompromising as the veriest atheist or 
materialist could desire. Notwithstanding the pre- 
valence of this feeling amongst the educated classes, 
there is a curiosity and interest manifested in every 
occurrence of this nature, that indicates a lurking faith 
at bottom, which an affected scepticism fails entirely to 
conceal. We feel, therefore, that we need not apologise to 
our reader* for introducing the following particulars of 
a visit to i house in this immediate neighbourhood, 
which had become notorious for some years previous, 
as being ' haunted;' and several of the reputed deeds, or 
misdeeds, of its supernatural visitant had been published 



HAUNTED HOUSES. 341 

far and wide by rumours thousand tongues. We deexij. 
it as worthy to be chronicled as the doings of its con- 
temporary genii at Windsor, Dublin, Liverpool, Carlisle, 
and Sunderland, and which have all likewise hitherto 
failed, after public investigation, to receive a solution 
Consistent with a rejection of spiritual agency. 

" We have visited the house in question, which is well 
known to many of our readers as being near a large steam 
corn -mill, in full view of Willington viaduct, on the 
Newcastle and Shields Railway; and it may not be 
irrelevant to mention that it is quite detached from the 
mill, or any other premises, and has no cellaring under 
it. The proprietor of the house, who lives in it, declines 
to make public the particulars of the disturbance to 
which he has been subjected, and it must be understood 
that the account of the visit we are about to lay before 
our readers is derived from a friend to whom Mr. Drury 
presented a copy of his correspondence on the subject, 
with power to make such use of it as he thought proper. 
We learned that the house had been reputed, at least 
one room in it, to have been haunted forty years ago, 
and had afterwards been undisturbed for a long period , 
during some years of which quietude the present occu- 
pant lived in it unmolested. We are also informed; 
that about the time that the premises were building, 
viz., in 1800 or 1801, there were reports of some deed 
of darkness having been committed by some one em- 
ployed about them. We should extend this account 
beyond the limits we have set to ourselves, did we now 
enter upon a full account of the strange things which 
have been seen and heard about the place by several 
of the neighbours, as well as those which are reported 
to have been seen, heard, and felt by the inmates, 
whose servants have been changed on that account 
many times. We proceed, therefore, to give the foL 
lowing letters, which have been passed between in- 
dividuals of undoubted veracity; leaving the reader to 
draw hia own conclusions on the subject. 



342 HAUNTED HOUSES. 

"(Coi% No. 1.) 

" To Mr. Procter, 17th Jane, 1840. 

" Sir, — Having heard from indisputable autho- 
rity, viz., that of my excellent friend, Mr. Davison, of 
Low Willington, farmer, that you and your family are 
disturbed by most unaccountable noises at night, I beg 
leave to tell you that I have read attentively Wesley's 
account of such things, but with, I must confess, no 
great belief; but an account of this report coming from 
one of your sect, which I admire for candour and sim- 
plicity, my curiosity is excited to a high pitch, which I 
would fain satisfy. My desire is to remain alone in the 
house all night, with no companion but my own watch- 
dog, in which, as far as courage and fidelity are concerned, 
I place much more reliance than upon any three young 
gentlemen I know of. And it is also my hope, that if 
I have a fair trial, I shall be able to unravel this 
mystery. Mr. Davison will give you every satisfaction 
if you take the trouble to inquire of him concerning 
me. 

•' I am, Sir, 

" Yours most respectfully, 

" Edward Druby. 
u At C. C. Embleton's, Surgeon, 

"No. 10, Church-street, Sunderland. 

" (Copy, No. 2.) 

u Joseph Procter s respects to Edward Drury, whose 
note he received a few days ago, expressing a wish to 
pass a night in his house at Willington. As the family 
is going from home on the 23rd instant, and one of 
"Unthank and Procters men will sleep in the house, if 
E. D. feels inclined to come, on or after the 24th, to 
spend a night in it, he is at liberty so to do, with or 
without his faithful dog, which, by the bye, can be of 
jao possible use, except as company. At the same time, 



HAUNTED HOUSES. 343 

J. P. thinks it best to inform him, that particular dis- 
turbances are far from frequent at present, being only 
occasional, and quite uncertain, and therefore the satis - 
faction of E. D.'s curiosity must be considered as 
problematical. The best chance will be afforded by his 
sitting up alone in the third story till it be fairly day- 
light, say two or three a.m. 

" Willington, 6th mo. 21st, 1840. 

" J. P. will leave word with T. Maun, foreman, to 
admit E. D. 

"Mr. Procter left home with his family on the 23rd 
June, and got an old servant, who was then out of 
place in consequence of ill-health, to take charge of the 
house during their absence. Mr. P. returned alone, on 
account of business, on the 3rd of July, on the evening 
of which day Mr, Drury and his companion also unex- 
pectedly arrived. After the house had been locked 
up, every corner of it was minutely examined. The 
room out of which the apparition issued is too shallow 
to contain any person. Mr. Drury and his friend had 
lights by them, and were satisfied that there was no 
one in the touse besides Mr. P., the servant, and 
'themselves. 

"(Copy, No. 3.) 

"Monday Morning, July C, 1840. 
"To Mr. Procter, 

" Dear Sir, — I am sorry I was not at home 
to receive you yesterday, when you kindly called to 
inquire for me. I am happy to state that I am really 
surprised that I have been so little affected as I am, 
after that horrid and most awful affair. The only bad 
effect that I feel is a heavy dulness in one of my ears — 
the right one. I call it a heavy dulness, because I not 
only do not hear distinctly, but feel in it a constant noise. 
This I never was affected with before; but 1 doubt not 



344 HAUNTED HOUSES. 

it will go off. I am persuaded that no one went to your 
house at any time more disbelieving in respect to seeing 
a/ny thing peculiar; now no one can be more satisfied than 
myself. I will, in the course of a few days, send you a 
full detail of all I saw and heard. Mr. Spence and 
two other gentlemen came down to my house in the 
afternoon, to hear my detail; but, sir, could I account 
for these noises from natural causes, yet, so firmly am I 
persuaded of the horrid apparition, that I would affirm 
that what I saw with my eyes was a punishment to me 
for my scoffing and unbelief; that I am assured that, as 
far as the horror is concerned, they are happy that 
believe and have not seen. Let me trouble you, sir, U 
give me the address of your sister, from Cumberland, 
who was alarmed, and also of your brother. I would 
feel a satisfaction in having a line from them; and, 
above all things, it will be a great cause of joy to me, 
if you never allow your young family to be in that 
horrid house again. Hoping you will write a few lines 
at your leisure, 

" I remain, dear Sir, 

" Yours very truly, 

" Edward Drury. 

" (Copy, No. 4.) 

" Willington, 7th mo. 9, 1840. 

u Respected Friend, E. Drury, 

" Having been at Sunderland, I did not receivo 
thinp of the 6th till yesterday morning. I am glad to 
hear thou art getting well over the effects of thy un- 
looked-lor visitation. I hold in respect thy bold and 
manly assertion of the truth in the face of that ridicule 
and ignorant conceit with which that which is called 
the supernatural, in the present day, is usually assailed. 

" I shall be glad to receive thy detail, in which it 
will be needful to be very particular in showing that 



HAUJSTED HOUSES, 345 

thou eouldst not be asleep, or attacked by nightmare, 
or mistake a reflection of tbo candle, as some saga- 
ciously suppose. 

" I remain, respectfully, 
" Thy friend, 

" Josh. Procter. 

" P.S. — I have about thirty witnesses to various 
things which cannot be satisfactorily accounted for on 
any other principle than that of spiritual agency. 

" (Copy, No. 5.) 

"Sunderland, July 13, 2840. 

" Dear Sir, — I hereby, according to promise in my 
last letter, forward you a true account of what I heard 
and saw at your house, in which T was led to pass the 
night from various rumours circulated by most respectable 
parties, particularly from an account by my esteemed 
friend Mr. Davison, whose name I mentioned to you 
in a former letter. Having received your sanction to 
visit your mysterious dwelling, I went, on the 3rd of 
July, accompanied by a friend of mine, T. Hudson. 
This was not according to promise, nor in accordance 
with my first intent, as I wrote yoa I would come 
alone; but I felt gratified at your kindness in not 
alluding to the liberty I had taken, as it ultimately 
proved ior the best. I must here mention that, not 
expecting you at home, I had in my pocket a brace of 
pistols, determining in my mind to let one of them drop 
before the miller, as if by accident, for fear he should 
pre.bviine to play tricks upon me \ but after my inter- 
view with you, I felt there was no occasion for weapons, 
and did not load them, after you had allowed us to 
inspect as minutely as we pleased every portion of the 
house I sat down on the third story landing, fully 
expecting to account for any noises that I might hear, 
in a philosophical manner. This was about eleven 



346 HAUNTED HOUSES. 

o'clock p.m. About ten minutes to twelve we both 
heard a noise, as if a number of people were pattering 
with their bare feet upon the floor; and yet, so singular 
was the noise, that I could not minutely determine 
from whence it proceeded. A few minutes afterwards 
we heard a noise, as if some one was knocking with his 
knuckles among our feet ; this was followed by a hollow 
cough from the very room from which the apparition 
proceeded. The only noise after this, was as if a 
person was rustling against the wall in coming up stairs. 
At a quarter to one, I told my friend that, feeling a 
little cold, I would like to go to bed, as we might hear 
the noise equally well there ; he replied, that he would 
not go to bed till daylight. I took up a note which I 
had accidentally dropped, and began to read it, after 
which I took out my watch to ascertain the time, and 
found that it wanted ten minutes to one. In taking 
my eyes from the watch they became rivetted upon a 
closet door, which I distinctly saw open, and saw also 
the figure of a female attired in greyish garments, with 
the head inclining downwards, and one hand pressed 
upon the chest, as if in pain, and the other, viz., the 
right hand, extended towards the floor, with the index 
finger pointing downwards. It advanced with an 
apparently cautious step across the floor towards me; 
immediately as it approached my friend, who was slum- 
bering, its right hand was extended towards him; I 
then rushed at it, giving, as Mr. Procter states, a most 
awful yell ; but, instead of grasping it, I fell upon my 
friend, and I recollected nothing distinctly for nearly 
three hours afterwards. I have since learnt that I 
was carried down stairs in an agony of fear and terror. 

" I hereby certify that the above account is strictly 
true and correct in every respect. 

" North Shields. Edward Dkury. 

"The following more recent case of an apparitior, 
seen in the window of the same house from the outside, 



HAUNTED HOUSES. 347 

by four credible witnesses who had the opportunity of 
scrutinizing it for more than ten minutes, is given on 
most unquestionable authority. One of these witnesses 
is a young lady, a near connexion of the family, who, 
for obvious reasons, did not sleep in the house ; another, 
a respectable man, who has been many years employed 
in, and is foreman of, the manufactory; his daughter, 
aged about seventeen ; and his wife, who first saw the 
object, and called out the others to view it. The ap- 
pearance presented was that of a bareheaded man, in a 
flowing robe like a surplice, who glided backwards and 
forwards about three feet from the floor, or level with 
the bottom of the second story window, seeming to 
enter the wall on each side, and thus present a side 
view in passing. It then stood still in the window, 
and a part of the figure came through both the blind, 
which was close down, and the window, as its luminous 
body intercepted the view of the framework of the 
window. It was semi-transparent, and as bright as a 
.star, diffusing a radiance all around. As it grew more 
dim, it assumed a blue tinge, and gradually faded away 
from the head downwards. The foreman passed twice 
close to the house under the window, and also went to 
inform the family, but found the house locked up. 
There was no moonlight, nor a ray of light visible any- 
where about, and no person near. Had any magic lan- 
tern been used, it could not possibly have escaped 
detection ; and it is obvious nothing of that kind could 
have been employed on the inside, as in that case the 
light could only have been thrown upon the blind, and 
not so as to intercept the view both of the blind and 
of the window from without. The owner of the house 
slept in that room, and must have entered it shortly 
after this figure had disappeared. 

" It may well be supposed what a sensation the 
report of the visit of Mr. Drury, and its result, must 
havt* created. It flew far and wide, and when it ap- 
pealed in print, still wider ; and what was not a little 



34:6 HAUNTED HOUSES. 

singular, Mr. Procter received, in consequence, a great 
number of letters from individuals of different rank* 
and circumstances, including many of large property, 
informing him that their residences were, and had been 
for years, subject to annoyances oi precisely a similar 
character. 

" So the ghosts and the hauntings are not gone, after 
all! We have turned our backs on them, and, in the 
pride of our philosophy, have refused to believe in them ; 
but they have persisted in remaining, -notwithstanding ! 

" These singular circumstances being at various 
times related by parties acquainted with the family at 
Willington, I was curious, on a tour northward some 
time ago, to pay this haunted house a visit, and to 
solicit a night's lodgiDg there. Unfortunately the 
family was absent, on a visit to Mrs. Procter s relatives 
ii: Carlisle, so that my principal purpose was defeated; 
but I found the foreman and his wife, mentioned in 
the foregoing narrative, living just by. They spoke of 
the facts above detailed with the simple earnestness of 
people who had no doubts whatever on the subject. 
The noises and apparitions in and about this house 
seemed just like any other facts connected with it — a^ 
matters too palpable and positive to be questioned, any 
more than that the house actually stood, and the mill 
ground. They mentioned to me the circumstance of 
the young lady, as above stated, who took up her lodg- 
ing in their house, because she would no longer en- 
counter the annoyances of the haunted house; and 
what trouble it had occasioned the family in procuring 
and retaining servants. 

" The wife accompanied me into the house, which I 
found in charge of a recently-married servant and her 
husband, dming the absence of the family. This young 
woman, who had, previous to her marriage, lived some 
time in the house, had never seen anything, and there- 
fore bad no fear. I was shown over the house, and 
especially into the room on the third story, the mam 
haunt of the unwelcome visitors, and where Mr. Drury 



HAUNTED HOUSES. 349 

had received suck an alarm. This room, as stated, was, 
and had been for some time, abandoned as a bed-room, 
from its bad character, and was occupied as a lumber- 
room 

lt At Carlisle, I again missed Mr. Procter; he had 
returned to Willington, so that I lost the opportunity 
of hearing from him or Mrs. Procter, any account 
of these singular matters. I saw, however, various 
members of his wife's family, most intelligent people, 
of the highest character for sound and practical sense, 
and they were unanimous in their confirmation of the 
particulars I had heard, and which are here related. 

" Cue of Mrs. Procters brothers, a gentleman in 
middle life, and of a peculiarly sensible, sedate, and 
candid disposition, a person apparently most unlikely 
to be imposed on by fictitious alarms or tricks, assured 
me that he had himself, on a visit there, been disturbed 
by the strangest noises. That he had resolved, befoie 
going, that if any such noises occurred he would speals, 
and demand of the invisible actor who he was, and 
why he came thither. But the occasion came, and he 
found himself unable to fulfil his intention. As he 
lay in bed one night, he heard a heavy step ascend the 
stairs towards his room, and some one striking, as it 
were, with a thick stick on the banisters, as he went 
along. It came to his door, and he essayed to call, but 
his voice died in his throat. He then sprang from 
his bed, and opening the door, found no one there, but 
low heard the same heavy steps deliberately descend- 
ing, though perfectly invisibly, the steps before his face, 
and accompanying the descent with the same loud blows 
on the banisters. 

" My informant now proceeded to the room door of 
Mr. Procter, who, he found, had also heard the sounds, 
*nd who now also arose, and with a light they made a 
speedy descent below, and a thorough search there, but 
without discovering anything that could account for 
the occurrence. 

"The two young ladies, who on a visit there, had 



350 HAUNTED HOUSES. 

also been annoyed by this invisible agent, gave me this 
account of it: — The first night, as they were sleeping 
in the same bed, they felt the bed lifted up beneath 
them. Of course, they were much alarmed. They 
feared lest some one had concealed himself there for 
the purpose of robbery. They gave an alarm, search 
was made, but nothing was found. On another night 
their bed was violently shaken, and the curtains sud- 
denly hoisted up all round to the very tester, as if 
pulled by cords, and as rapidly let down again, several 
times.* Search again produced no evidence of the 
cause. The next day they had the curtains totally 
removed from the bed, resolving to sleep without them, 
as they felt as though evil eyes were lurking behind 
them. The consequences of this, however, were still 
more striking and terrific. The following night, as 
they happened to awake, and the chamber was light 
enough — for it was summer— to see everything in it, 
they both saw a female figure, of a misty substance, 
and bluish-grey hue, come out of the wall at the bed's 
head, and through the head- board, in a horizontal posi- 
tion, and lean over them. They saw it most distinctly. 
They saw it as a female figure come out of, and again 
pass into, the wall. Their terror became intense, and 
one of the sisters, from that night, refused to sleep any 
more in the house, but took refuge in the house of the 
foreman during her stay; the other shifting her quar- 
ters to another part of the house. It was the young 
lady who slept at the foreman's who saw, as above re- 
lated, the singular apparition of the luminous figure in 
the window, along with the foreman and his wife. 

" It would be too long to relate all the forms in 
which tins nocturnal disturbance is said by the family 
to present itself. When a figure appears, it is some- 
times that of a man, as already described, which is 

* It is remarkable that this hoisting of the bed-curtains is simi- 
lar to an incident recorded in the account of the vi,si< */ Lo!J 
Tyrone's gliost to Lad} Beiesford. 



HAUNTED HOUSES. 351 

often very luminous, and passes through the walls as 
though they were nothing. This male figure is well 
known to the neighbours by the name of ' Old Jeffrey!' 
At other times it is the figure of a lady also in gray 
costume, and as described by Mr. Drury. She is 
sometimes seen sitting wrapped in a sort of mantle, 
with her head depressed, and her hands crossed on 
her lap. The most terrible fact is that she is without 
eyes, 

" To hear such sober and superior people gravely 
relate to you such things gives you a very odd feeling. 
They say that the noise made is often like that of a 
paviour with his rammer thumping on the floor. At 
other times it is coming down the stairs, making a 
similar loud sound. At others it coughs, sighs, and 
groans, like a person in distress; and, again, there is 
the sound of a number of little feet pattering on the 
floor of the upper chamber, where the apparition has 
more particularly exhibited itself, and which, for that 
reason, is solely used as a lumber-room. Here these 
little footsteps may be often heard as if careering a 
child's carriage about, which in bad weather is kept 
up there. Sometimes, again, it makes the most horrible 
laughs. Nor does it always confine itself to the night. 
On one occasion a young lady, as she assured me her- 
self, opened the door in answer to a knock, the house- 
maid being absent, and a lady in fawn-coloured silk 
entered, and proceeded up stairs. As the young lady, 
of course, supposed it a neighbour come to make a 
morning call on Mrs. Procter, she followed her up 
to the drawing-room, where, however, to her asto- 
nishment, she did not find her, nor was anything more 
seen of her. 

" Such are a few of the i questionable shapes ' in 
which this troublesome guest comes. As may be ex- 
pected, the terror of it is felt by the neighbouring 
cottagers, though it seems to confine its malicious 
disturbance almost solely to the occupants of this one 



352 HAUNTED HOUSES. 

house There is a well, however, near to which n 
one ventures after it is dark, because it has been seen 
near it. 

" It is useless to attempt to give any opinion re- 
specting the real causes of these strange sounds and 
sights. How far they may be real or imaginary, how 
far ' hey may be explicable by natural causes or not ; 
the only thing which we have here to record is the very 
singular fact of a most respectable and intelligent family 
having for many years been continually annoyed by 
them, as well as their visitors. They express themselves 
as most anxious to obtain any clue to the true cause, as 
may be seen by Mr. Procter's ready acquiescence in the 
experiment of Mr. Drury. So great a trouble is it to 
them that they have contemplated the necessity of 
quitting the house altogether, though it would create 
great inconvenience as regarded business. And it only 
remains to be added, that we have not heard very re- 
cently whether these visitations are still continued, 
though we have a letter of Mr. Procter s to a friend of 
ours, dated September, 1844, in which he says, c Dis- 
turbances have for a length of time been only very 
unfrequent, which is a .comfoit, as the elder children 
are getting old enough (about nine or ten years) 
to be more injuriously affected by anything of the sort.' 

" Over these facts let the philosophers ponder, and 
if any of them be powerful enough to exorcise ' Old 
Jeffrey,' or the bluish-gray and misty lady, we are 
sure that Mr. Joseph Procter will hold himself deeply 
indebted to them. We have lately heard that Mr. 
Procter has discovered an old book, which makes it 
appear that the very same ' haunt in gs' took place in an 
old house, on the very same spot, at least two hundred 
y^ars ago." 

To the above information, furnished by Mr. Howitt, 
I have to subjoin that the family of Mr. Procter are 
now quitting the house, which he intends to divide 
into small tenements for the workpeople. A friend ol 



HAUNTED HOUSES. 353 

mine who lately visited Willington, and who went over 
the house with Mr. Procter, assures me that the an- 

ances still continue, though less frequent than for- 
merly. Mr. P. informed her that the female figure 
sometimes appeared in a shroud, and that it had been 
seen in that guise by one of the family only a few days 
before. A wish being expressed by a gentleman visiting 
Mr. P. that some natural explanation of these perplexing 
circumstances might be discovered, the latter declared 

entire conviction, founded on an experience of fifteen 
years, that no such elucidation was possibles 



854 



CHAPTER XIV. 

SPECTRAL LIGHTS AND APPARITIONS ATTACHED 
TO CERTAIN FAMILIES. 

In commencing another chapter, I take the opportunity 
of repeating what I have said before, viz., that in 
treating of these phenomena, I find it most convenient 
to assume what I myself believe, that they are to be 
explained by the existence and appearance of what are 
called ghosts; but in so doing, I am not presuming to 
settle the question: if any one will examine into the 
facts and furnish a better explanation of them, I shall 
be ready to receive it. 

In the mean time, assuming this hypothesis, there is 
one phenomenon frequently attending their appearance, 
which has given rise to a great deal of thoughtless ridi- 
cule, but which, in the present state of science, merits 
very particular attention. Grose, whom Dr. Hibbert 
quotes with much satisfaction, says, " I cannot learn 
that ghosts carry tapers in their hands, as they are 
depicted, though the room in which they appear, even 
when without fire or candle, is frequently said to be as 
light as d&y.'' 

Most persons will have heard of this peculiarity 
attending the appearance of ghosts. In the case of 
Professor Dorrien's apparition, mentioned in a former 
chapter, Professor Oeder saw it, when there was no 
light in the room, by a flame which proceeded from 
itself. When he had the room lighted, he saw it no 
longer; the light of the lamp rei dering invisible the 
more delicate phosphorescent \iaht of the spectre; just. 



SPECTRAL LIGHTS, ETC. 355 

as the bright glare of the sun veils the feebler lustre of 
the stars, and obscures to our senses many chemical 
lights, which are very perceptible in darkness. Hence 
the notion, so available to those who satisfy themselves 
with scoffing without inquiring, that broad daylight 
banishes apparitions, and that the belief in them is 
merely the offspring of physical as well as moral 
darkness. 

I meet with innumerable cases in which this phcs** 
phorescent light is one of the accompaniments, the 
flame sometimes proceeding visibly from the iigure; 
whilst in others, the room appeared pervaded with light 
without its seeming to issue from any particular object. 

I remember a case of the servants in a country house, 
in Aberdeenshire, hearing the door-bell ring after their 
mistress was gone to bed; on coming up to open it, 
they saw through a window that looked into the hall, 
that it was quite light, and that their master, Mr. F., 
who was at the time absent from home, was there in his 
travelling dress. They ran to tell their mistress what 
they had seen; but when they returned, all was dark, 
and there was nothing unusual to be discovered. That 
night Mr. F. died at sea, on his voyage to London. 

A gentleman, some time ago, awoke in the middle of 
a dark winter's night, and perceived that his room was 
as Light as if it were day. He awoke his wife and 
mentioned the circumstance, saying he could not help 
apprehending that some misfortune had occurred to his 
fishing boats, which had put to sea. The boats were 
lost that night. 

Only last year there was a very curious circumstance 
happened in the south of England, in which these 
lights were seen. I give the account, literally, as I 
extracted it from the newspaper, and also the answer of 
the editor to my further inquiries. I know nothing 
more of this story; but it is singularly in keeping with 
others proceeding from different quarters. 

" A Ghost at Bristol. — We have this week a ghost- 



356 SPECTRAL LIGHTS, ETC. 

story to relate. Yes, a ghost story; a real ghost story, 
arid a. ghost story without, as yet, any clue to its eluci- 
dation. After the dissolution of the Calendars, their 
ancient residence, adjoining, and almost forming a part 
of All Saints' Church, Bristol, was converted into a 
vicarage-house, and it is still called by that name, 
though the incumbents have for many years ceased to 
reside there. The present occupants are Mr. and Mrs. 
Jones the sexton and sextoness of the church, and one 
or two lodgers; and it is to the former and their servant 
maid, that the strange visitor has made his appearance, 
causing such terror by his nightly calls, that ail three 
have determined on quitting the premises, if, indeed, 
they have not already earned their resolution into effect. 
Mr. and Mrs. Jones's description of the disturbance, as 
given to the landlord, on whom they called in great 
consternation, is as distinct as any ghost story could be. 
The nocturnal visitor is heard walking about the house 
when the inhabitants are in bed; and Mr. Jones, who 
is a man of by no means nervous constitution, declares 
he has several times seen a light flickering on one of the 
walls. Mrs. Jones is equally certain that she has heard 
a man with creaking shoes walking in the bed-room 
above her own, when no man was on the premises (or 
at least ought to be), and ' was nearly killed with the 
fright.' To the servant maid, however, was vouchsafed 
the unenvied honour of seeing this restless night visitor : 
she declares she has repeatedly had her bed-room dooi 
unbolted at night, between the hours of twelve and twe 
o'clock — the period when such beings usually make 
their promenades — by something in human semblance; 
she cannot particularize his dress, but describes it as 
something antique, and of a fashion ' lang syne gane.' 
and to some extent corresponding to that of the ancient 
Calendars, the former inhabitants of the house. She 
further says, he is ' a whiskered gentleman' (we give her 
own words), which whiskered gentleman has gone the 
length of shaking her bed, and, she believes, would 



SPECTRAL rJGHTS, ETC 357 

have shaken herself also, but that she invariably puts 
her head under the clothes when she sees him approach. 
Mrs. Jones declares she believes in the appearance of 
the whiskered gentleman, and she had made up her 
mind, the night before she called on her landlord, to 
leap out of the window (and it is not a trifle chat will 
make people leap out of the windows), as soon as he 
entered the room. The effect of the * flickering light' on 
Mr. Jones was quite terrific, causing excessive trembling, 
and the complete doubling up of his whole body into a 
round ball, like/' — Bristol Times. 

11 Bristol Times Office, 
3rd June, 1816. 
" Madam, — In reply to your inquiries respect mg the 
ghost story, I have to assure you that th s whole 
affair remains wrapped in the same mystery as when 
chronicled in the pages of the Bristol Times. 
" I am. Madam, 

" Yours obediently, 

ic The Editor" 

I subsequently wrote to Mrs Jones, who I found 
was not a very dexterous scribe, but she confirmed the 
above account, adding, however, that the Rev. Mr. — -, 
the clergyman of the parish, said I had better write to 
him about it. and that he does not believe in such things. 
Of course, he does not ; and it would have been useless 
to have asked his opinion. 

There never was, perhaps, a more fearless human 
being than Madame Gottfried, the Empoisonneuse of 
Bremen \ at least, she felt no remorse — she feared 
nothing but discovery \ and yet, when after years of suc- 
cessful crime, she was at length arrested r she related. 
that soon after the death of her first husband, Milten- 
burg, whom she had poisoned, as she was standing in 
the du3k of the evening, in her drawing-room, she 
suddenly saw a bright light hovering at no great dis- 



^ 58 SPECTRAL LIGHTS, ETC. 

tance above the floor, which advanced towards her bed- 
room door, and then disappeared. This phenomenon 
occurred on three successive evenings. On another 
occasion, she saw a shadowy appearance hovering near 
her "Ach! denke ich, das ist Miltenburg, seine Ers- 
cheinung !— Alas! thought I, that is the ghost of Mil- 
tenburg! Yet did not this withhold her murderous 
hand. 

The lady who met with the curious adventure in 
Petersburg, mentioned in a former chapter, had no 
light in her room; yet. she saw the watch distinctly by 
the old woman s light, though of what nature it was, 
she does not know. Of the lights seen over graves 
familiarly called corpse candles, I have spoken elsewhere 
as also of the luminous form perceived by Billing in 
the garden at Colmar, as mentioned by Baron Von 
Beichenbach. Most people have heard the story of the 
Radiant Boy, seen by Lord Castlereagh, an apparition 
which the owner of the castle admitted to have been 
visible to many others. Dr. Kerner mentions a very 
similar fact, wherein an advocate and his wife were 
awakened by a noise and a light, and saw a beautiful 
child enveloped by the sort of glory that is seen surround- 
ing the heads of saints. It disappeared, and they never 
had a repetition of the phenomenon, which they after- 
wards heard was helieved to recur eveiy seven years in 
that house and to b e connected with the cruel murder 
ot a child by his mother. 

To these instances I will add an account of the 
g ?°" tr ei U n 9~ Castle > C0 Fed from the handwriting 
oi ., M H. in a book of manuscript extracts, dated 

, Cai 7 e ' December 22nd, 1824; and furnished to 
me by a friend of the family. 

"In order to introduce my readers to the haunted 
room, I will mention that it forms part of the old 
house with windows looking into the court, which in 
early tunes was deemed a necessary security against an 
enemy. It adjoins a tower buUt by the Romans for 



SPECTRAL LIGHTS, ETC. 359 

defence ; for C — was properly more a border tower than 
a castle of any consideration. There is a winding stair- 
case in this tower, and the walls are from eight to ten 
feet thick. 

(i When the times became more peaceable, one an- 
cestors enlarged the arrow-slit windows, and added to 
that part of the building which looks towards the river 
Eden; the view of which, with its beautiful banks, we 
now enjoy. But many additions and alterations have 
been made since that. 

" To return to the room in question; I must observe 
that it is by no means remote or solitary, being sur- 
rounded on all sides by chambers that are constantly 
inhabited. It is accessible by a passage cut through a 
wall eight feet in thickness, and its dimensions are 
twenty-one by eighteen. One side of the wainscoting 
is covered with tapestry, the remainder is decorated 
with old family pictures, and some ancient pieces of 
embroidery, probably the handiwork of nuns. Over a 
press, which has doors of Venetian glass, is an ancient 
oaken figure, with a battle-axe in his hand, which was 
one of those formerly placed on the walls of the city of 
Carlisle, to represent guards. There used to be also an 
old-fashioned bed and some dark furniture in this room; 
but, so many were the complaints of those who slept 
there, that I was induced to replace some of these 
articles of furniture by more modern ones, in the hope 
of removing a certain air of gloom, which I thought 
might have given rise to the unaccountable reports of 
apparitions and extraordinary noises which were 
j constantly reaching us. But T regret to say I did not 
I succeed in banishing the nocturnal visitor, which still 
continues to disturb our friends. 

" I shall pass over numerous instances, and select 
one as being especially remarkable, from the circum- 
stance of the apparition having been seen by a clergy 
man well known and highly respected in this county, 
who, not six weeks ago, repeated the circumstances to 



360 SPECTRAL LIGHTS, ETC. 

a company of twenty persons, amongst whom were 
some who had previously been entire disbelievers in 
s a o 1 \ appea ran ces. 

" The best way of giving you these particulars, will 
be by subjoining an extract from my journal, entered 
at the time the event occurred. 

"Sept. 8, 1803. — Amongst other guests invited to 
C — Castle, came the Rev. Henry A. of Redburgh, and 
rectoi oi Grey stoke, with Mrs. A., his wife, who was ft 
Miss S., of Ulverstone. According to previous ar- 
rangements, they were to have remained with us some 
days; but their visit was cut short in a very unexpected 
manner. On the morning after their arrival, we were 
all assembled at breakfast, when a chaise and four 
dashed up to the door in such haste, that it knocked 
down part of the fence of my flower-garden. Our 
curiosity was, of course, awakened to know who could 
be arriving at so early an hour; when, happening to 
turn my eyes towards Mr. A., I observed that he ap- 
peared extremely agitated. ' It is our carriage !' said 
he; 'I am very sorry, but we must absolutely leave 
you this morning.' 

" We naturally felt and expressed considerable sur- 
prise, as well as regret, at this unexpected departure; 
representing that we had invited Colonel and Mrs. S., 
some friends whom Mr. A. particularly desired to meet, 
to dine with us on that day. Our expostulations, how- 
ever, were vain : the breakfast was no sooner over 
than they departed, leaving us in consternation to con- 
jecture what could possibly have occasioned so sudden 
an alteration in their arrangements. I really felt quite 
uneasy lest anything should have given them offence; 
and we reviewed all the occurrences of the preceding 
evening, in order to discover, if offence there was, 
whence it had arisen. But our pains were vain; and, 
after talking a great deal about it for some days, other 
circumstances banished the matter from our minds. 

" It was not till we some time afterwards visited the 



SPECTRAL LIGHTS, ETC. 361 

part of the county in which Mr. A. resides, that we 
learnt the real cause of his sudden departure from C — . 
The relation of the fact, as it here follows, is in hh own 
words : — 

,; ' Soon after we went to bed, we fell asleep : it might 
be between one and two in the morning when I awoke. 
I observed that the fire was totally extinguished; but, 
although that was the case, and we had no light, I saw 
a glimmer in the centre of the room, which suddenly 
increased to a bright flame. I looked out, apprehend- 
ing that something had caught fire; when, to my 
amazement, I beheld a beautiful boy, clothed in white, 
with bright locks, resembling gold, standing by my 
bed-side, in which position he remained some minutes, 
fixing his eyes upon me with a mild and benevolent 
expression. He then glided gently away towards the 
side of the chimney, where it is obvious there is no 
possible egress, and entirely disappeared. I found 
myself again in total darkness, and all remained quiet 
until the usual hour of rising. T declare this to be a 
true account of what I saw at C — Castle, upon my 
word as a clergyman.'" 

I am acquainted with some of the family, and with 
several of the friends of Mr. A., who is still alive, 
though now an old man, and I can most positively 
assert that his own conviction, with regard to the 
nature of this appearance, has remained ever unshaken. 

The circumstance made a lasting impression upon 
his mind, and he never willingly speaks of it; but 
when he does, it is always with the greatest seriousness, 
and he never shrinks trom avowing his belief, that 
what he saw admits of no other interpretation than the 
one be then put upon it. 

Now let us see whether in this department of the 
phenomena of ghost-seeing, namely, the lights that fre- 
quently accompany the apparitions, there is anything 
so worthy of ridicule as Grose and other such commen- 
tators seem to think. 



362 SPKCTKAL LIGHTS, ETC. 



Of God, the uncreated, we know nothing; but the 
created spirit, man, we cannot conceive of independent 
of some organism or organ, however different that organ 
may be to those which form our means of apprehension 
and communication at present. This organ we may 
suppose to be that pervading ether, which is now the 
germ of what St. Paul calls our spiritual body, the astral 
spirit of the mystics, the nerve-spirit of the clear-seers • 
the fundamental body, of which the external fleshly 
body is but the copy and husk— an organ comprehend- 
ing ad those distinct ones which we now possess, in the 
one universal, or, as some of the German physiologists 
call it, the central sense, of which we occasionally obtain 
some glimpses in somnambulism and in other peculiar 
states of nervous derangement; especially where the 
ordinary senses of sight, hearing, feeling, <fec. are in 
abeyance; an effect which Dr. Ennemoser considers to 
be produced by a change of polarity, the external peri- 

P i. 6 - l T ?£ *^f nerveS takin S on a negative state; and 
which Dr. Passavant describes as the retreating of the 
ether from the external to the internal, so that the 
nerves no longer receive impressions, or convey infor- 
mation to the brain; a condition which may be pro- 
duced by various causes, as, excess of excitement, great 
elevation of the spirit, as we see in the ecstatics and 
martyrs, or over-irritation producing consequent ex- 
haustion; and also artificially, by certain manipula- 
tions, narcotics, and other influences. All somnambules 
ot the highest order— and when I make use of this ex- 
pression, I repeat, that I do not allude to the subjects 
of mesmeric experiments, but to those extraordinary, 
cases ot disease, the particulars of which have been re- 
corded by various continental physicians of eminence— 
all persons in that condition describe themselves as 
hearing and seemg, not by their ordinary organs, but 
by some means, the idea of which they cannot convey 
further than that they are pervaded by light; and that 
this is not the ordinary physical light is evident, mas- 



SPECTRAI, LIGHTS, ETC. 363 

much as that they generally see best in the dark, a re- 
markable instance of which I riyself witnessed. 

I never had the slightest idea of this internal light 
till, in the way of experiment, I inhaled the sulphuric 
ether ; but I am now very well able to conceive it ; for 
after first feeling an agreeable warmth pervading my 
limbs, my next sensation was to find myself, I cannot 
say in this heavenly light, for the light was in me — T 
was pervaded by it ; it was not perceived by my eyes., 
which were closed, but perceived internally, I cannot 
tell how, Of what nature this heavenly light was, and 
I cannot forbear calling it heavenly, for it was like no- 
thing on earth — I know not, nor how far it may be 
related to those luminous emanations occasionally seen 
around ecstatics, saints, martyrs, and dying persons; or 
to the flames seen by somnambules issuing from various 
objects, or to those observed by Yon Reichenbach's 
patients proceeding from the ends of the fingers, &c. 
But at all events, since the process which maintains 
life is of the nature of combustion, we have no reason 
to be amazed at the presence of luminous emanations; 
and as we are the subjects of various electrical pheno- 
mena, nobody is surprised when, on combing their hair 
or pulling off their silk stockings, they hear a crackling 
noise or even see sparks. 

Light, in short, is a phenomenon which seemc con- 
nected with all forms of Hie ; and I need not here refer 
to that emitted by glow-worms, fire-flies, and those 
marine animals which illuminate the sea. The eyes also 
of many animals shine with a light which is not merely 
a reflected one; as has been ascertained by Rengger, 
a German naturalist, who found himself able to distin- 
guish objects in the most profound darkness by the 
' flaming eyes of a South American monkey. 

"The seeing of a clear-seer," says Dr. Passavant, 
"may be called a solar seeing, for he lights and inter- 
penetrates his object with his own organic light, viz., his 
i I nervous ether, which becomes the organ of the spirit; 



364 SPECTRAL LIGHTS, ETC 

and under certain circumstances this organic light 
becomes visible, as in those above alluded to. Per- 
sons recovering from deep swoons and trances fre- 
quently describe themselves as having been in this 
region of light — this light of the spirit, if I may so 
call it— this palace of light, in which it dwells, which 
will hereafter be its proper light ; for the physical or 
solar light, which serves us whilst in the flesh, will be 
no longer needed, when out of it, nor probably be per- 
ceived by the spirit, which will then, I repeat, be a 
light to itself: and as this organic light, this germ of 
our future spiritual body, occasionally becomes partially 
visible now, there cannot, I think, be any great diffi- 
culty in conceiving that it may under given circum- 
stances be so hereafter. 

The use of the word light in the Scriptures, must not 
be received in a purely symbolical sense. We shall 
dwell in light, or we shall dwell in darkness, in propor- 
tion as we have shaken off the bonds that chain us to 
the earth; according, in short, to our moral state, we 
shall be pure and bright, or impure and dark. 

Monsieur Arago mentions in his treatise on lightning 
and the electrical fluid, that all men are not equally 
susceptible of it ; and that there are different degrees of 
receptivity, verging from total insensibility to the ex- 
treme opposite ; and he also remarks that animals are 
more susceptible to it than men. He says, the fluid 
will pass through a chain of persons, of whom perhaps 
one, though forming only the second link, will be wholly 
insensible to the shock. Such persons would be rarely 
struck by lightning, whilst another would be in as 
great danger from a flash as if he were made of metal. 
Thus it is not only the situation of a man during a 
storm, but also his physical constitution, that regulates 
the amount of his peril. The horse and the dog are 
particularly susceptible. 

Now, this varying susceptibility is analogous to, if 
not the very same, that causes the varying susceptibility 



SPECTRAL LIGHTS, ETC. 3G5 

to such phenomena as I am treating of; and, accord- 
ingly, we know that in all times, horses and dogs 
have been reputed to have the faculty of seeing spirits; 
and when persons who have the second sight see a 
vision, these animals, if in contact with them, per- 
ceive it also, and frequently evince symptoms of 
great terror. We also here find the explanation 
of another mystery, namely, what the Germans call 
anstecJcicag, and the English sceptics when allud- 
ing to these phenomena, contagion — meaning simply 
roniagiousfear; but as when several persons form a 
chain, the shock from an electrical machine will pass 
through the whole of them; so, if one person is in such 
a state as to become sensible of an apparition or some 
similar phenomenon, he may be able to communicate 
that power to another; and thus has arisen the convic- 
tion amongst the Highlanders, that a seer by touching 
a person near him, enables him frequently to participate 
in his vision. 

A little girl, in humble life, called Mary Delves, of 
a highly nervous temperament, has been frequently 
punished for saying that the cat was on fire; and that 
she saw flames issuing from various persons and objects. 

With regard to the perplexing subject of corpse 
lights, there would be little difficulty attending it if 
they always remained stationary over the graves; but 
it seems very well established that that is not the case. 
There are numerous stories, proceeding from very re- 
spectable quarters, proving the contrary; and I have 
heard two from a dignitary of the church, born in 
Wales, which I will relate. 

A female relation of his had occasion to go to Abe* 
rystwith, which was about twenty miles from her home, 
on horseback; and she started at a very early hour 
; for that purpose, with her father's servant. When 
j they had nearly reached the half-way, fearing the man 
might be wanted at home, she bade him return, as she 
was approaching the spot where the servant of the 



366 SPECTRAL LIGHTS; ETC. 

lady she was going to visit was to meet her, in order 
to escort her the other half. The man had not long 
left her, when she saw a light coming towards her, the 
nature of which she suspected; it moved, according to 
her description, steadily on, about three feet from the 
ground. Somewhat awe struck, she turned her horse 
out of the bridle-road, along which it was coming, in- 
tending to wait till it had passed; but, to her dismays 
just as it came opposite to her it stopped, and there 
remained perfectly fixed for nearly half an hour; at 
the end of which period it moved on as before. 

The servant presently came up, and she proceeded 
to the house of her friend, where she related what she 
had seen. A few days afterwards, the very servant 
who came to meet her, was taken ill and died; his 
body was carried along that road; and at the very 
spot where the light had paused, an accident occurred, 
which caused a delay of half an hour. 

The other story was as follows: — -A servant in the 
family of Lady Davis, my informant's aunt, had occa- 
sion to start early for market. Being in the kitchen, 
about three o'clock in the morning, taking his break- 
fast alone, when everybody else was in ,bed, he was 
surprised at hearing a sound of heavy feet on the stairs 
above; and opening the door to see who it could be, he 
was struck with alarm at perceiving a great light, much 
brighter than could have been shed by a candle, at the 
same time that he heard a violent thump as if some 
very heavy body had hit the clock, which stood on the 
landing. Aware of the nature of the light, the man 
did not wait its further descent, but rushed out of the 
house; whence he presently saw it issue from the front 
door, and proceed on its way to the churchyard. 

As his mistress, Lady D., was at that period in her 
bed, ill, he made no doubt that her death impended ; 
and when he returned from the market at night, his 
first question was whether she was yet alive; and 
though he was informed she was better, he declared his 



SPECTKAL LIGHTS, ETC. 3G7 

conviction that she would die, alleging as his reason 
what he had seen in the morning; a narration which 
led everybody else to the same conclusion. 

The lady however recovered; but within a fortnight 
another member of the family died; and as his coffin 
was brought down the stairs, the bearers ran it violently 
against the clock; upon which the man instantly ex- 
claimed, " That is the very noise I heard !" 

I could relate numerous stories wherein the appear- 
ance of a ghost was accompanied by a light, but as 
there is nothing that distinguishes them from those 
above-mentioned. I will not dilate further on this 
branch of the subject, on which, perhaps, I have said 
enough to suggest to the minds of my readers, that 
although we know little hoio such things are, we do 
know enough of analogous phenomena to enable us to 
believe, at least, their possibility. 

I confess I find much less difficulty in conceiving the 
existence of such facts as those above described, than 
those of another class, of which we meet with occa- 
sional instances. 

For example, a gentleman of fortune and station in 
Ireland, was one day walking along the road, when he 
met a very old man, apparently a peasant, though well 
dressed, and looking as if he had on his Sunday habili- 
ments. His great age attracted the gentleman's atten- 
tion, the more that he could not help wondering at the 
alertness of his movements, and the ease with wliich he 
was ascending the hill. He consequently accosted him 5 
inquiring his name and residence; and was answered, 
that his name was Kirkpatrick, and that he lived at 
a cottage, which he pointed out. "Whereupon, the 
gentleman expressed his surprise that he should be 
unknown to him, since he fancied he had been ac- 
quainted with every man on his estate. " It is odd 
you have never seen me before," returned the old manj 
" for I walk here every day." 

" How old are you T asked the gentleman* 



0C8 SPECTRAL LIGHTS, ETC. 

" I am one hundred and five," answered the other; 
" and have been here all my life." 

After afewmore words they parted; and the gentleman 
proceeding towards some labourers in a neighbouring 
field, inquired if they knew an old man of the name of 
Kirkpatrick. They did not; but on addressing the 
question to some older tenants, they said, " Oh, yes;" they 
had known him, and had been at his funeral; he had 
lived at the cottage on the hill, but had been dead 
twenty years. 

" How old was he when he died?" inquired the gentle- 
man, much amazed. — " He was eighty-five," said they; 
so that the old man gave the age that he would have 
reached had he survived to the period of this rencontre. 

This curious incident is furnished by the gentleman 
himself, and all he can say is, that it certainly occurred, 
and that he is quite unable to explain it. He was in 
perfect health at the time, and had never heard of this 
man in his life, who had been dead several years before 
the estate came into his possession. 

The following is another curious story. The original 
will be found in the register of the church named, from 
which it has been copied for my use: — 

Extract from the Register in Brisley Church, Norfolk. 

" December 12th, 1706.— I Robert Withers, M.A., 
vicar of Gately, do insert here a story which I had 
from undoubted hands; for I have all the moral cer- 
tainty of the truth of it possible: — 

" Sir. Grose went to see Mr. Shaw on the 2nd of 
August last. As they sat talking in the evening, says 
Mr. Shaw 'on the 21st of the last month, as I was 
smoking my pipe, and reading in my study, between 
eleven and twelve at night, in comes Mr. Naylor 
(formerly fellow of St. John's College, but had been 
dead full four years.) When I saw him I was not 
much affrighted, and I asked him to sit down, which 
accordingly he did, for about two hours, and we talked 
together. I asked him how it fared with him] he 



SPECTRAL LIGHTS, ETC. 369 

said c Very well.' ' Were any of our old acquaintance 
with him V i N*o !' (at which I was much concerned ;) 
'but Mr. Orchard will be with me soon and yourself not 
long after.' As he was going away, I asked him if he 
would not stay a little longer, but he refused. I asked 
him if he would call again. 'No;' he had but three 
days leave of absence, and he had other business. 

" N.B. — Mr. Orchard died soon after. Mr. Shaw is 
now dead, he was formerly fellow of St. John's College, 
an ingenious good man. I knew him there; but at his 
death he had a college living in Oxfordshire, and here 
he saw the apparition." 

An extraordinary circumstance occurred some years 
ago, in which a very pious and very eminent Scotch 
minister, Ebenezer Brown, of Inverkeithing, was con- 
cerned. A person of ill character in the neighbourhood 
having died, the family very shortly afterwards came to 
him, to complain of some exceedingly unpleasant cir- 
cumstances connected with the room in which the 
dissolution had taken place, which rendered it unin- 
habitable, and requesting his assistance. Ail that is 
known by his family of what followed is, that he went 
and entered the room alone; came out again in a state 
of considerable excitement and in a great perspiration; 
took off his coat, and re-entered the room; a great 
noise, and, I believe voices were then heard by the 
family, who remained during the whole time at the door; 
when he came out finally, it was evident that something 
very extraordinary had taken place; what it was, he 
said, he could never disclose; but that perhaps after his 
death some paper might be found upon the subject. 
None, however, as far as I can learn, has been dis- 
covered. 

A circumstance of a very singular nature is asserted 
to have occurred, not very many years back in regard 
to a professor in the College of A — , who had seduced 
a girl and afterwards married another woman. The girl 
became troublesome to him, and being found murd ired 



370 SPECTRAL LIGHTS, ETC. 

after having been last seen in his company, he was 
suspected of having been some way concerned in the 
crime; but the strange thing is, that, from that period, he 
retired every evening at a particular hour to a certain 
room, where he stayed great part of the night, and where 
it wd& declared that her voice was distinctly heard in 
conversation with him. A strange wild story, which J 
give as I have it, without pretending to any explanation 
Of the belief that seems to have prevailed, that he was 
obliged to keep this fearful tryst. 

Visitations of this description, which seem to indicate 
that the deceased person is still, in some way incom- 
prehensible to us, an inhabitant of the earth, are more 
perplexing than any of the stories I meet with. In the 
time of Frederick IX, of Prussia, the cook of a Catholic 
priest, residing at a village named Quarrey, died, and he 
took another in her place; but the poor woman had no 
peace or rest from the interference of her predecessor, 
insomuch that she resigned her situation, and the 
minister might almost have done without any servant 
at all. The fires were lighted, and the rooms swept 
and arranged, and all the needful services performed, by 
unseen hands. Numbers of people went to witness the 
phenomena, till, at length, the story reached the ears of 
the King; who sent a captain and a lieutenant of his 
guard to investigate the affair. As they approached 
the house, they found themselves preceded by a march, 
though they could see ^o musicians, and when they 
entered the parlour and witnessed what was going on, 
the captain exclaimed, " If that doesn't beat the devil P 
l*pon which he received a smart slap on the face, from 
the invisible hand that was arranging the furniture. 

In consequence of this affair, the house was pulled 
down, by the King's orders, and another residence built 
for the minister, at some distance from the spot. 

Now, to impose on Frederick II. would have been 
no slight matter, as regarded the probable consequences; 
and the officers of his guard would certainly not have 



PPECTKAL LIGHTS, ETC. 371 

been disposed to make the experiment; and it is not 
likely that the King would have ordered the house to 
bo pulled down without being thoroughly satisfied of 
the truth of the report. 

One of the most remarkable stories of this class I 
know, excepting, indeed, the famous one of the Grecian 
bride, is that which is said to have happened at Orossen 
in Silesia, in the year 1659, in the reign of the Priaces3 
Elizabeth Charlotte. In the spring of that year, an 
apothecary's man, called Christopher Monig, a native 
of Serbest, in Anhalt, died, and was buried with the 
usual ceremonies of the Lutheran Church. But to the 
amazement of everybody, a few days afterwards, he, or 
at least what appeared to be himself, appeared in the 
shop, where he would sit himself down, and sometimes 
walk; take boxes, pots, and glasses from the shelves, 
and set them again in other places; sometimes trying 
and examining the goodness of the medicines: weigh 
them with the scales, pound the drugs with a mighty 
noise ; nay, serve the people that came with bills to the 
shop, take their money and lay it up in the counter; in 
a word, do all things that a journeyman in such cases 
used to do. He looked very ghostly upon his former 
companions, who were afraid to say anything to him, 
and his master being sick at that time, he was very 
troublesome to him. At last he took a cloak that hung 
in the shop, put it on and walked abroad, but minding 
nobody in the streets; he entered into some of the 
citizens' houses, especially such as he had formerly 
known, yet spoke to no one, but to a maid- servant, 
vhom he met with hard by the churchyard, whom he 
(fesired to go home and dig in a lower chamber of he? 
master's house, where she would find an inestimable 
treasure. But the girl, amazed at the sight of him, 
swooned away; whereupon he lifted her up, but left a 
"mark upon her in so doing that was long visible. She 
fell sick in consequence of the fright, and having told 
what Monig had said to her, they dug up the place indi- 



372 SPECTRAL LIGHTS, ETC. 

cated, but found nothing but a decayed pot with aii 
hemarites or bloodstone in it. The affair making a 
great noise, the reigning Princess caused the man's body 
to be taken up; which being done, it was found in a 
state of putrefaction, and was re-interred. The apothe- 
cary was then recommended to remove everything be- 
longing to Monig; his linen, clothes, books, &c, after 
which, the apparition left the house, and was seen no 
more. 

The fact of the man's re-appearance in this manner 
was considered to be so perfectly established at the 
time, that there was actually a public disputation on 
the subject, in the Academy of Leipsic. With regard 
to the importance the apparition attached to the blood- 
stone, we do not know but that there may be truth in 
the persuasion, that this gem is possessed of some occult 
properties of much more value than its beauty. 

The story of the Grecian bride is still more won- 
derful, and yet it comes to us surprisingly well authen- 
ticated, inasmuch as the details were forwarded by the 
prefect of the city in which the thing occurred, to the 
pro-consul of his province; and by the latter were laid 
before the Emperor Hadrian; and as it was not the 
custom to mystify Roman Emperors, we are constrained 
to believe that what the prefect and pro-coiasul com- 
municated to him, they had good reason for believing 
themselves. 

It appears that a gentleman called Demostratos, and 
Charito, his wife, had a daughter called Philinnion, 
who died; and that about six months afterwards, a 
youth named Machates, who had come to visit them, 
was surprised, on retiring to the apartments destined to 
strangers, by receiving the visits of a young maiden, who 
eats and drinks, and exchanges gifts with him. Some 
accident having taken the nurse that way, she, amazed 
by the sight, summons her master and mistress to 
behold their daughter, who is there sitting with the 
guest. 



SPECTRAL LIGHTS, ETC. 373 

Of course, they do not believe her; but at length, 
wearied by her importunities, the mother follows her 
fco the guest's chamber; the young people, however, are 
now asleep, and the door closed; but looking through 
the key-hole, she perceives what she believes to be her 
daughter. Still unable to credit her senses, she resolves 
to wait till morning before disturbing them; but when 
she comes again, the young lady has departed; whilst 
Machates, on being interrogated, confesses that Philin- 
nion had been with him, but that she had admitted to 
him that it was unknown to her parents. Upon this 
the amazement and agitation of the mother were 
naturally very great, especially when Machates showed 
Aer a ring which the girl had given him, and a bodice 
which she had left behind her; and his amazement was 
no less, when he heard the story they had to tell. He, 
however, promised that if she returned the next night, 
he would let them see her; for he found it impossible to 
believe that, his bride was their dead daughter. He 
suspected, on the contrary, that some thieves had 
stripped her body of the clothes and ornaments in 
which she had been buried, and that the girl who came 
to his room had bought them. "When, therefore, she 
arrived, his servant having had orders to summon the 
father and mother, they came; and perceiving that it was 
really their daughter, they fell to embracing her, with 
tears. But she reproached them for the intrusion, 
declaring that she had been permitted to spend three 
days with the stranger in the house of her birth; but 
that now she must go to the appointed place; and im- 
mediately fell down dead, and the dead body lay there 
visible to all. 

The news of this strange event soon spread abroad, 
the house was surrounded by crowds of people, and the 
prefect was obliged to take measures to prevent a 
tumult. On the following morning, at an early hour, 
the inhabitants assembled in the theatre, and from 
thence they proceeded to the vault, in order to ascer- 



374 SPECTRAL LIGHTS. ETC. 

tain if the body of Philinnion was where it had beers 
deposited six months before. It was not; biit on ihe 
bier there lay the ring and cap which Machates had 
presented to her the first night she visited him ; show- 
ing that she had returned there in the interim. They 
then proceeded to the house of Democrates. where they 
saw the body which it was decreed must now be buried 
without the bounds of the city. Numerous religious 
ceremonies and sacrifices followed, and the unfortunate 
Machates, seized with horror, put an end to his own 
life. 

The following very singular circumstance occurred 
in this country towards the latter end of the last cen- 
tury; and excited at the time considerable attention ; 
the more so, as it was asserted by everybody acquainted 
with the people and the locality, that the removal of 
the body was impossible, by any recognised means; be- 
sides, that no one would have had the hardihood to 
attempt such a feat : — 

" Mr. "William Craighead, author of a popular system 
of arithmetic, was parish schoolmaster of Monifieth, 
situated upon the estuary of the Tay, about six miles 
east from Dundee. It would appear that Mr. Craig- 
head was then a young man, fond of a frolic, without 
being very scrupulous about the means, or calculating 
the consequences. There being a lyke wake in the 
neighbourhood, attended by a number of his acquaint- 
ance, according to the custom of the. times, Craighead 
procured a confederate, with whom he concerted a plan 
to draw the watchers from the house, or at least from 
the room wa-'- re the corpse lay. Having succeeded in 
this, he dexterously removed the dead body to an outer 
house, while his companion occupied the place of the 
corpse in the bed where it had lain. It was agreed 
upon between the confederates, that when tjie company 
was re-assembled, Craighead was to join them, and at a 
concerted signal, the impostor was to rise, shrouded like 
the dead mam whilst the two were to enjoy the terror 



SPECTRAL LIGHTS, ETC. 375 

and alarm of their comjjanions. Mr. C. came in, and 
after being some time seated, the signal was made, 
but met no attention ; he was rather surprised ; it was 
repeated, and still neglected. Mr. C, in his turn, now 
became alarmed ; for he conceived it impossible that 
his companion could have fallen asleep in that situa- 
tion ; his uneasiness became insupportable ; he went to 
the bed, and found his friend lifeless ! Mr. O.'s feelings, 
as may well be imagined, now entirely overpowered 
iiini, and the dreadful fact was disclosed; their agitation 
was extreme, and it was far from being alleviated when 
every attempt to restore animation to the thoughtless 
young man proved abortive. As soon as their con- 
fusion would permit, an inquiry was made after the 
original corpse, and Mr. C. and another went to fetch 
it in, but it was not to be found. The alarm and con- 
sternation of the company was now redoubled; for 
some time, a few suspected that some hardy fellow 
among them had been attempting a Rowland for an 
Oliver: but when every knowledge of it was most 
solemnly denied by all present, their situation can be 
more easily imagined than described; that of Mr. 0. 
was little short of distraction; daylight came without 
relieving their agitation ; no trace of the corpse could 
be discovered, and Mr. C. was accused as the primum 
mobile of all that had happened ; he was incapable of 
sleeping, and wandered several days and nights in 
search of the body, which was at last discovered in the 
parish of Tealing, deposited in a field about six miles 
distant from the place from whence it was removed." 

"It is related, that this extraordinary affair had 
a strong and lasting effect upon Mr, C.'s mind and con- 
duct ; that he immediately became serious and thought-* 
fill, and ever after conducted himself with great pru- 
dence and sobriety." 

Amongst what are called superstitions, there are a 
great many curious ones, attached to certain families ; 
■ajid from some members of these families, T have been 



376 SPECTRAL LIGHTS, ETC. 

assured, that experience has rendered it impossible for 
them to foroear attaching importance to these per- 
suasions. 

A very remarkable circumstance occurred lately in 
this part of the world, the facts of which 1 had an 
opportunity of being well acquainted with. 

One evening, somewhere about Christmas, of the 
year 1844, a letter was sent for my perusal, which had 
been just received from a member of a distinguished 
family in Perthshire. The friend who sent it me, an 
eminent literary man, said, "Read the enclosed; and 
we shall now have an opportunity of observing if any 
event follows the prognostics." The information con- 
tained in the letter was to the following effect : — 

Miss D., a relative of the present Lady C, who had 
been staying some time with the Earl and Countess, at 
their seat, near Dundee, was invited to spend a few 

days at C Castle,- with the Earl and Countess of 

A. She went, and whilst she was dressing for dinner, 
the first evening of her arrival, she heard a strain of 
music under her window, which finally resolved itself 
into a well-defined sound of a drum. When her maid 
came up stairs, she made some inquiries about the 
drummer that was playing near the house; but the 
maid knew nothing on the subject. For the moment 
the circumstance passed from Miss D.'s mind ; but 
recurring to her again during the dinner, she said, 
addressing Lord A., " My Lord, who is your drummer I" 
upon which his lordship turned pale, Lady A. looked 
distressed, and several of the company, who all heard 
the question, embarrassed; whilst the lady, perceiving 
that she had made some unpleasant allusion, although 
she knew not to what their feelings referred, forebode 
further inquiry till she reached the drawing-room; 
when, having mentioned the circumstance again to a 
member of the family, she was answered, " What ! 
have you never heard of the drummer-boy 1 " " No ;" 
replied Miss D " who in the world is he \ n "Why/* 



SPECTRAL LIGHTS, ETC. 377 

replied the other, " he is a person who goes about the 
house playing his drum, whenever there is a death im- 
pending in the family. The last time he was heard, 
was shortly before the death of the last Countess (the 
Earl's former wife) ; and that is why Lord A. became 
so pale when you mentioned it. The drummer is a 
very unpleasant subject in this family, I assure you !" 

Miss D. was naturally much concerned, and, indeed, 
not a little frightened at this explanation, and her 
alarm being augmented by hearing the sounds on the 

following day, she took her departure from 

Castle, and returned to Lord C.'s, stopping on her way 
to call on some friends, where she related this strange 
circumstance to the family, through whom the informa- 
tion reached me. 

This affair was very generally known in the north, and 
we awaited the event with interest. The melancholy 
death of the Countess about five or six months after- 
wards, at Brighton, sadly verified the prognostic. I 
have heard that a paper was found in her desk after 
her death, declaring her conviction that the drum was 
for her; and it has been suggested, that probably the 
thing preyed upon her mind and caused the catastrophe ; 
but, in the first place, from the mode of her death, thai? 
does not appear to be the case ; and, in the second, even 
if it were, the fact of the verification of the prognostic 
remains unaffected ; besides which, those who insist 
upon taking refuge in this hypothesis, are bound to 
admit, that before people living in the world, like Lord 
and Lady A., could attach so much importance to the 
prognostic as to entail such fatal effects, they must have 
had very good reason for believing in it. 

The legend connected with the drummer is, that 
either himself, or some officer whose emissary he was, 
had become an object of jealousy to a former Lord A., 
and that he was put to death by being thrust into hi,,, 
own drum, and flung from the window of the tower in 
whioh Miss D.'s room was situated. It is said, that he 



378 SPECTKaL LIGHTS, ETC. 

threatened to haunt them if they took his life; and he 
seems to have been as good as his word, having been 
heard several times in the memory of persons yet 
living. 

There is a curious legend attached to the family of 
G. of H., to the effect, that when a lady is confined in 
that house, a little old woman enters the room when 
the nurse is absent and strokes down the bed-clothes ; 
after which, the patient, according to the technical 
phrase, "never does any good," and dies. Whether 
the old lady has paid her visits or not, I do not know ; 
but it is remarkable that the results attending several 
late confinements there have been fatal. 

There was a legend in a certain family, that a single 
swan was always seen on a particular lake before a 
death. A member of this family told me, that on one 
occasion, the father, being a widower, was about to 
enter into a second marriage. On the wedding-day, 
his son appeared so exceedingly distressed, that the 
bridegroom was offended, and expostulating with him. 
was told by the young man, that his low spirits were 
caused by his having seen the swan. He, the son, 
died that night quite unexpectedly. 

Besides Lord Littleton's , dove, there are *a great 
many very curious stories recorded, in which birds 
have been seen in a room when a death was impend- 
ing ; but the most extraordinary prognostic I know is 
that of the black dog, which seems to be attached to 
some families : — 

A young lady of the name of P. not long since war 
sitting at work, well and cheerful, when she saw to her 
great surprise a large black dog close to her. As both 
door and window were closed, she could not understand 
how he had got in, but when she started up to put him 
out. she could no longer see him. Quite puzzled, and 
thinking it must be some strange illusion, she set 
down again, and went on with her work, when presently 
he waa there again. Much alarmed, she now ran out 



SPECTRA^ LIGHTS, ETC. S79 

and told her mother, who said she must have fancied 
it, or be ill. She declared neither was the case, and to 
oblige her, the mother agreed to wait outside the door, 
and if she saw it again, she was to call her. Miss P. 
re-entered the room and presently there was the dog 
again \ but when she called her mother, he disappeared. 
Immediately afterwards the mother was taken suddenly 
ill and died. Before she expired, she said to her 
daughter, " Remember the black dog 1" 

I confess, I should have been much disposed to 
think this a spectral illusion, were it not for the num- 
ber of corroborative instances; and I have only this 
morning read in the review of a work called " The 
Unseen World," just published, that there is a family 
in Cornwall who are also warned of an approaching 
death by the apparition of a black dog, and a very 
curious example is quoted, in which a lady, newly mar- 
ried into the family, and knowing nothing of the tra- 
dition, came down from the nursery to request her 
husband would go up and drive away a black dog that 
was lying on the child's bed. He went up and found 
the child dead. 

I wonder if this phenomenon is the origin of the 
French phrase bete noire, to express an annoyance, or 
an augury of evil. 

Most persons will remember the story of Lady Fan- 
shawe, as related by herself in her memoirs; namely, 
that whilst paying a visit to Lady Honor O'Brien, she 
was awakened the first night she slept there by a voice^ 
and on drawing back the curtain she saw a, femalo 
figure standing in the recess of the window attired in 
white, with red hair and a pale and ghastly aspect; 
" She looked out of the window," says Lady Fanshawe, 
" and cried in a loud voice, such as I never before 
heard, ' A horse ! A horse ! A horse I' and then with 
a sigh, which rather resembled the wind than the voice 
of a human being, she disappeared. Her body ap- 
peared to me rather like a thick cloud than a real solid 

B B 



380 SPECTRAL LIGHTS, ETC. 

substance. I was so frightened," she continues, "that 
my hair stood on end and my night-cap fell off. I 
pushed and shook my husband, who had slept all the 
time, and who was very much surprised to find me in 
such a fright, and still more so when I told him the 
cause of it, and showed him the open window. Neither 
of us slept any more that night, out he talked to ine 
about it, and told me how much more frequent such 
apparitions were in that country than in England." 
This was, however, what is called a Banshee, for in the 
morning Lady Honor came to them to say that one of 
the family died in the night, expressing a hope that 
they had not been disturbed; for, said she, whenever 
any of the O'Briens is on his deathbed it is usual for 
a woman to appear at one of the windows every night 
till he expires; but when I put you into this room I 
did not think of it." This apparition was connected 
with some sad tale of seduction and murder. 

I could relate many more instances of this kind, but 
I wish as much as possible to avoid repeating cases 
already in print; so I will conclude this chapter with 
the following account of Pearlin Jean, whose per- 
severing annoyances at Allanbank were so thoroughly 
believed and established as to have formed at various 
times a considerable impediment to letting the place. 
I am indebted to Mr. Charles Kirlqoatrick Sharpe for 
the account of Jean and the anecdote that follows. 

A housekeeper, called Betty Norrie, that lived many 
years at Allanbank, declared she and various other 
people had frequently seen Jean, adding, that they were 
so used to her as to be no longer alarmed at her noises. 

" In my youth," says Mr. Sharpe, " Pearlin Jean wan 
the most remarkable ghost in Scotland, and my terror 
when a child. Our old nurse, Jenny Blackadder, had 
been a servant at Allanbank, and often heard her 
rustling in silks up and down stairs, and along the 
passages. She never saw her; but her husband did. 

" She was a French woman, whom the first baronet 



SPECTRAL LIGHTS; ETCi 381 

of AJlanbankj then Mr. Stuart, met with at Paris, 
during his tour to finish his education as a gentleman. 
Some people said she was a nun ; in which case she 
must have been a Sister of Charity, as she appears not 
to have been confined to a cloister. After some time, 
young Stuart either became faithless to the lady or was 
suddenly recalled to Scotland by his parents, and had 
got into his carriage, at the door of the hotel, when 
his Dido unexjoectedly made her appearance, and step- 
ping on the fore-wheel of the coach to address her 
lover, he ordered the postilion to drive on ; the conse- 
quence of which was that the lady fell, and one of the 
wheels going over her forehead, killed her. 

" In a dusky autumnal evening, when Mr. Stuart 
drove under the arched gateway of Allanbank, he per- 
ceived Pearlin Jean sitting on the top, her head and 
shoulders covered with blood. 

<• After this, for many years, the house was haunted; 
doors shut and opened with great noise at midnight; 
the rustling of silks and pattering of high-heeled shoes 
were heard in bedrooms and passages. Nurse Jenny 
said there were seven ministers called in together at 
one time to lay the spirit; 'but they did no mickle 
good, my dear.' 

c: The picture of the ghost was hung between those of 
her lover and his lady, and kept her comparatively quiet ; 
but when taken away, she became worse natured than 
ever. This portrait was in the present Sir J. G.'s pos- 
session. I am unwilling to record its fate. 

4i The ghost was designated Pearlin, from always 
wearing a great quantity of that sort of lace.* 

" Nurse Jenny told me that when Thomas Black- 
adder was her lover (I remember Thomas very well), 
they made an assignation to meet one moonlight night 
in the orchard at Allanbank. True Thomas, of course, 
was the first comer; and seeing a female figure in a 

*A species of lace made of thread. — Jamiesok. 



S82 SPECTRAL LIGHTS, ETC. , 

light coloured dress, at some distance, he ran forward 
with open arms to embrace his Jenny; when lo, and 
behold ! as he neared the spot where the figure stood, 
it vanished ; and presently he saw it again at the very 
end of the orchard, a considerable way off. Thomas 
went home in a fright \ but Jenny, who came last, and 
saw nothing, forgave him, and they were married. 

" Many years after this, about the year 1790, two 
ladies paid a visit at Allanbank — I think the house 
was then let — and passed the night there. They had 
never heard a word about the ghost \ but they were 
disturbed the whole night with something walking 
backwards and forwards in their bed-chamber. This I 
had from the best authority. 

" Sir Robert Stuart was created a baronet in the 
year 1687. 

" Lady Stapleton, grandmother of the late Lord Lo 
Despencer, told me, that the night Lady Susan Fane, 
Lord Westmoreland's daughter, died in London, she 
appeared to her father, then at Merriworth, in Kent. 
He was in bed, but had not fallen asleep. There was 
a light in the room; she came in, and sat down in a 
chair at the foot of the bed. He said to her, ' Good 
God, Susan ! how came you here 1 What has brought 
you from townf She made no answer; but rose di- 
rectly, and went to the door, and looked back towards 
him very earnestly; then she retired, shutting the door 
behind her. The next morning he had notice of her 
death. This, Lord Westmoreland himself told to Lady 
Stapleton, who was by birth a Fane, and his near rela- 
tion." 



CHAPTER XV. 

APPARITIONS SEEKING THE PRAYERS OF THE 
LIVING. 

With regard to the* appearance of ghosts, the fre- 
quency of haunted houses, presentiments, prognostics, 
and dreams, if we come to inquire closely, it appears to 
me that all parts of the world are much on an equality, 
only that where people are most engaged in business 
or pleasure, these things are, in the first place, less 
thought of and less believed in, consequently less ob- 
served; and when they are observed, they are readily 
explained away : and, in the second place, where the 
external life — the life of the brain — wholly prevails, 
either they do not happen, or they are not perceived, 
the rapport not existing or the receptive faculty being 
obscured. 

But although the above phenomena seem to be 
equally well known in all countries, there is one pecu- 
liar class of apparitions, of which I meet with no 
records but in Germany. I allude to ghosts who, like 
ihose described in the " Seeress of Prevorst," seek the 
prayers of the living. In spite of the positive asser- 
tions of Kemer, Eshcenmayer, and others, that, after 
neglecting no means to investigate the affair, they had 
been forced into the conviction, that the spectres that 
frequented Frederica Hauffe were not subjective illu- 
sions, but real outstanding forms, still, as she was in 
the somnambulic state, many persons remained per- 
suaded that the whole thing was a delusion It is true, 



384 APPARITIONS SEEKING 

that as those parties were not there, and as all those 
who did go to the spot came to a different conclusion, 
this opinion, being only the result of preconceived 
notions or prejudices, and not of calm investigation, is 
of no value whatever; nevertheless, it is not to he 
denied that these narrations are very extraordinary; 
but, perplexing as they are, they by no means stand 
alone. I find many similar ones, noticed in various 
works, where there has been no somnambule in ques- 
tion. In all cases, these unfortunate spirits appear to 
have been waiting for some one with whom they could 
establish a rapport, so as to be able to communicate 
with him; and this waiting has sometimes endured a 
century or more. Sometimes, they are seen by only 
one person, at other times, by several, with varying 
degrees of distinctness, appearing to one as a light, to 
another as a shadowy figure, and to a third as a defined 
human form. Other testimonies of their presence, as 
sounds, footsteps, lights, visible removing of solid arti- 
cles without a visible agent, odours, &c., are generally 
perceived by many; in short, the sounds seem audible 
to all who come to the spot, with the exception of the 
voice, which, in most instances, is only heard by the 
person with whom the rapport is chiefly established. 
Some cases are related, where a mark like burning is 
left on the articles seen to be lifted. This is an old 
persuasion, and has given rise to many a joke; but 
upon the hypothesis I have offered, the thing is simple 
enough; the mark will probably be of the same nature 
as that left by the electrical fluid; and it is this parti- 
cular, and the lights that often accompany spirits, that 
have caused the notion of material flames, sulphur, 
brimstone, and so forth, to be connected with the idea 
of a future state. According to our views, there can 
be no difficulty in conceiving that a happy and blessed 
spirit would emit a mild radiance; whilst anger or 
malignity would necessarily alter the character of the 
effulgence. 



THE PRAYERS OF THE LIVING. 385 

As whoever wishes to see a number of these cases 
may have recourse to my translation of the " Seeress oi 
Prevorst," I will here only relate one. of a very remark- 
able nature, that occurred in the prison of Weinsberg, 
in the year 1835. 

Dr. Kerner, who has published a little volume con- 
taining a report of the circumstances, describes the place 
where the thing happened to be such an one as nega- 
tives, at once, all possibility of trick or imposture. It 
was in a sort of block-house or fortress — a prison within 
a prison — with no windows but what looked into a 
narrow court or passage, which passage was closed with 
several doors. It was on the second floor; the windows 
being high up, heavily barred with iron, and immovable 
without considerable mechanical force. The external 
prison is surrounded by a high wall, and the gates are 
kept closed day and night. The prisoners in different 
apartments are, of course, never allowed to communicate 
with each other, and the deputy-governor of the prison 
and his family, consisting of a wife and niece, and one 
maid-servant, are described as people of unimpeachable 
respectability and veracity. As depositions regarding 
this affair were laid before the magistrates, it is on them 
I found my narration. 

On the 12th September, 1835, the deputy-governor, 
or keeper of the jail, named Mayer, sent in a report to 
the magistrates, that a woman called Elizabeth Eslinger 
was every night visited by a ghost, which generally 
came about eleven o'clock, and which left her no rest, 
as it said, she was destined to release it ; and it always 
invited her to follow it; and as she would not, it pressed 
heavily on her neck and side, till it gave her pain. The 
persons confined with her pretended also to have seen 
this apparation. 

(Signed) "Mayer." 

A woman named Posina Schahl, condemned to eight 
days'' confinement for abusive language, deposed, that 



386 APPARITIONS SEEKING 

about eleven o'clock, Eslinger began to breathe hard, as 
if she was suffocating; she said a ghost was with her, 
seeking his salvation. " I did not trouble myself about 
it, but told her to wake me when it came again. Last 
night I saw a shadowy form, between four and five feet 
high, standing near the bed; I did not see it move. 
Eslinger breathed very hard, and complained of a 
pressure on the side. For several days she has neither 
ate nor drank anything. 

(Signed) " Schahl." 

"court resolves 
" That Eslinger is to be visited by the prison phy- 
sician, and a report made as to her mental and bodily 
health. 

" Signed by the magistrates, 

" ECKHARDT. 

" Theurer. 
" Knorr. 

" REPORT. 

" Having examined the prisoner, Elizabeth Eslinger, 
confined here since the beginning of September, I found 
her of sound mind, but possessed with one fixed idea, 
namely, that she is, and has been for a considerable 
time, troubled by an apparition, which leaves her no 
rest, coming chiefly by night, and requiring her prayers 
to release it. It visited her before she came to the 
prison, and was the cause of the offence that brought 
her here. Having now, in compliance with the orders 
of the Supreme Court, observed this woman for eleven 
weeks, I am led to the conclusion that there is no 
deception in this case, and also that the persecution is 
not a mere monomaniacal idea of her own, and the 
testimony not only of her fellow prisoners, but that of 
the deputy-governor's family, and even of persons in 
distant houses, confirms me in this persuasion. 

"Eslinger is a widow, aged thirty- eight years, and 
declares that she never had any sickness whatever; 



THE PRAYERS OF THE LIVING. 387 

neither is she aware of any at present; hut she has 
always been a ghost-seer, though never till lately had 
any communication with them. That now for eleven 
weeks that she has been in the prison, she is nightly dis- 
turbed by an apparition, that had previouly visited her 
in her own house, and which had been once seen also 
by a girl of fourteen, a statement which this girl con- 
firms. When, at home, the apparition did not appear 
in a defined human form, but as a pillar of cloud, out 
of which proceeded a hollow voice, signifying to her 
that she was to release it by her prayers from the cellar 
of a woman in Wimmenthal, named Singhaasin, whi- 
ther it was banished, or whence it could not free itself. 
She, Eslinger, says that she did not then venture to 
speak to it, not knowing whether to address it as Sie, 
Fhr, or Du, (that is, whether she should address it in 
the second or third person, which custom, amongst the 
Germans, has rendered a very important part of eti- 
quette. It is to be remembered that this woman was 
a peasant, without education, who had been brought 
into trouble by taking to treasure-seeking, a pursuit in 
which she hoped to be assisted by this spirit. This 
digging for buried treasure is a strong passion in Ger- 
many.) 

" The ghost now comes in a perfect human shape, 
and is dressed in a loose robe, with a girdle, and ha£ on 
its head a four-cornered cap. It has a projecting chin 
and forehead, fiery, deep-set eyes, a long beard, and 
high cheek-bones, which look as if they were covered 
with parchment. A light radiates about and above 
his head, and in the midst of this light she sees the 
outlines of the spectre. 

" Both she and her fellow-prisoners declare, that this 
apparition comes several times in a night, but always 
between the evening and morning bell. He often 
. comes through the closed door or window, but they can 
then see neither door, or window, or iron bars; they 
often hear the closing of the door, and can see into the 



388 APPARITIONS SEEKING 

passage when he comes in or out that way, so that if a 
piece of wood lies there they see it. They hear a 
shuffling in the passage as he conies and goes. He 
most frequently enters by the window, and they then 
hear a peculiar sound there. He comes in quite erect ■ 
Although their cell is entirely closed, they feel a cool 
wind* when he is near them. All sorts of noises are 
heard, particularly a crackling. "When he is angry, 
or in great trouble, they perceive a strange, mouldering, 
earthy smell. He often pulls away the coverlet, and 
sits on the edge of the bed. At first the touch of his 
hand was icy cold, since he became brighter, it is 
warmer; she first saw the brightness at his finger-ends, 
it afterwards spread further. If she stretches out her 
hand she cannot feel him, but when he touches her she 
feels it; he sometimes takes her hands and lays them 
together, to make her pray. His sighs and groans are 
like a person in despair; they are heard by others as 
well as Eslinger. "Whilst he is making these sounds, 
she is often praying aloud, or talking to her com- 
panions, so they are sure it is not she who makes them. 
She does not see his mouth move when he speaks. The 
voice is hollow and gasping. He comes to her for 
prayers, and he seems to her like one in a mortal sick- 
ness, who seeks comfort re the prayers of others. He 
says he was a Catholic priest in Wimmenthal, and lived 
in the year 1414. 

(Wimmenthal is still Catholic; the woman Eslinger 
herself is a Lutheran, and belongs to Backnang.) 

" He says that, amongst other crimes, a fraud com- 
mitted conjointly with his father on his brothers, 
presses sorely on him ; he cannot get quit of it; it 
obstructs him. He always entreated her to go with 
him to Wimmenthal, whither he was banished or con- 
signed, and to pray there for him. 

* It is to be observed that this is the sensation asserted to be 
felt by Reichenbach's patients o) the approach of the magnet. 




THE PKAYERS OF THE LIVING. 389 

%( She says she cannot tell whether what he says is 
*true; and does not deny that she thought to find trea- 
sures by his aid. She has often told him that the 
Sprayers of a sinner like herself cannot help him, and 
that he should seek the Redeemer; but he will not 
Uorbear his entreaties. When she says these things he 
fis sad, and presses nearer to her, and lays his head so 
close that she is obliged to pray into his mouth. 
He seems hungry for prayers. She has often felt his 
tears on her cheek and neck; they felt icy cold; but 
„the spot soon after burns, and they leave a bluish red 
" ese marks are visible on her skin.) 
;ht this apparition brought with him a large 
leapt on the beds, and was seen by 
v her fellow prisoners also, who were much terrified, 
and screamed. The ghost however spoke, and said, 
1 Fear not, this is my father.' He had since brought 
the dog with him again, which alarmed them dreadfully, 
. and made them quite ill. 

" Both Mayer and the prisoners asserted, that Es- 
linger was scarcely seen to sleep, either by night or day, 
i for ten weeks; she ate little, prayed continually, and 
appeared very much wasted and exhausted. She said 
that she saw the spectre alike whether her eyes were 
open or closed, which showed that it was a magnetic 
perception, and not seeing by her bodily organs. It is 
remarkable that a cat belonging to the jail, being shut 
I up in this room, was so frightened when the apparition 
came, that it tried to make its escape by flying against 
I the walls; and finding this impossible, it crept under 
| the coverlet of the bed, in extreme terror. The expe- 
riment was made again, with the same result; and after 
this second time, the animal refused all nourishment, 
wasted away, and died. 

" In order to satisfy myself," says Dr. Kerner, " of 

the truth of these depositions, I went to the prison on 

v the night of the 15th October, and shut myself up 

* without light in. Eslinger's cell About half-past 



390 APPARITIONS SEEKING 

eleven I heard a sound as of some hard body being 
flung down; but not on the side where the woman was, 
but the opposite; she immediately began to breathe 
hard, and told me the spectre was there. I laid my 
hand on her head, and adjured it as an evil spirit to 
depart. I had scarcely spoken the words when there 
was a strange, rattling, crackling noise all round the 
walls, which finally seemed to go out through the win- 
dow; and the woman said that the spectre had departed. 

"On the following night it told her that it was 
grieved at being addressed as an evil spirit, which it 
was not; but one that deserved pity; and that what it 
wanted was prayers and deliverance. 

"On the 18th October, I went to the cell again, 
between ten and eleven, taking with me my wife, and 
the wife of the keeper, Madame Mayer. When the 
woman's breathing showed me the spectre was there, 
I laid my hand on her, and adjured it, in gentle terms, 
not to trouble her further. The same sort of sound 
as before, commenced, but it was softer, and this time 
continued all along the passage, where there was cer- 
tainly nobody. We all heard it. 

" On the night of the 20th, I went again, with 
Justice Heyd. We both heard sounds when the 
spectre came, and the woman could not conceive why 
we did not see it. We could not; but we distinctly 
felt a cool wind blowing upon us, when, according to 
her account, it was near, although there was no aper- 
ture by which air could enter." 

Oq each of these occasions, Dr. K. seems to have 
emained about a couple of hours. 

Madame Mayer now resolved to pass a night in the 
cell, for the purpose of observation; and she took her 
niece, a girl aged nineteen, with her; her repoit is as 
follows: — 

"It was a rainy night, and in the prison pitch dark; 
my niece slept sometimes; I remained awake all night, 
and mostly sitting up in bed. 



THE PRAYERS OF THE LIVING. 391 

"About midnight I saw a light come in at the 
window; it was a yellowish light, and moved slowly; 
and though we were closely shut in, I felt a cool wind 
blowing on me. I said to the woman, c the ghost is 
here, is he not V She said, c yes,' and continued to pray, 
'as she had been doing before. The cool wind and the 
light now approached me; my coverlet was quite light, 
and I could see my hands and arms, and at the same 
, time I perceived an indescribable odour of putrefaction, 
. my face felt as if ants were running over it. (Most of 
: the prisoners described themselves as feeling the same 
sensation when the spectre was there.) Then the light 
moved about, and went up and down the room; and 
I on the door of the cell I saw a number of little giim- 
^mering stars, such as I had never before seen. Pre- 
^seutly, I and my niece heard a voice which I can 
compare to nothing I ever heard before. It was not 
like a human voice. The words and sighs sounded as 
if they were drawn up out of a deep hollow, and ap- 
peared to ascend from the floor of the roof in a column; 
whilst this voice spoke, the woman was praying aloud: 
iso I was sure it did not proceed from her. No one 
could produce such a sound. They were strange super- 
human sighs, and entreaties for prayers and deliverance. 
u It is very extraordinary, that whenever the ghost 
i spoke, I always felt it beforehand. (Proving that the 
spirit had been able to establish a rapport with this 
j person. She was in a magnetic relation to him.) 
We heard a crackling in the room also. I was perfectly 
; awake, and in possession of my senses, and we are 
I ready to make oath to having seen and heard these 
things." 

On the 9th of December, Madame Mayex spent the 
night again in the cell, with her niece and her maid- 
servant; and her report is as follows: — 
] . " It was moonlight, and I sat up in the bed all night, 
watching Eslinger. Suddenly I saw a white shadowy 
form, like a small animal, cross the room. I asked 



392 APPAKITIONS SEEKING 

her what it was, and she answered, c don't yon see it's 
a lamb 1 ? It often comes with the apparition.' We 
then saw a stool, that was near us, lifted and set down- 
again on its legs. She was in bed, and praying the 
whole time. Presently, there was such a noise at tr - 
window that I thought all the panes were broken. She* 
told us it was the ghost, and that he was sitting on thei 
stool. We then heard a walking and shuffling up and 
down, although I could not see him; but presently 1 
felt a cool wind blow on me, and out of this wind the 
same hollow voice I had heard before said, c In tin 
name of Jesus, look on me !' 

" Before this the moon was gone, and it was quite 
dark; but when the voice spoke to me, I saw a light 
around us, though still no form. Then there was 
sound of walking towards the opposite window, and I 
heard the voice say, e do you see me now?' And then 
for the first time I saw a shadowy form, stretching up 
as if to make itself visible to us, but could distinguish! 
no features. 

" During the rest of the night I saw it repeatedly, I 
sometimes sitting on the stool, and at others moving 
about; and I am perfectly certain that there was no 
moonlight now, nor any other light from without. How 
I saw it I cannot tell; it is a thing not to be described. 

" Eslinger prayed the whole time, and the more 
earnestly she did so the closer the spectre went to her. 
It sometimes sat upon her bed. 

" About five o'clock, when he came near to me, and 
I felt the cool air, I said, ' Go to my husband in his v : 
chamber, and leave a sign that you have been there !' J 
He answered distinctly, 'Yes.' Then we heard the* 
door, winch was fast locked, open and shut; and we 
saw the shadow float out (for he floated rather than f 
walked), and we heard the shuffling along the passage. I 

" In a quarter of an hour we saw him return, enter- 
ing by the window: and I asked him if he had beer 



y 



;i 



THE PRAYERS OF THE LIVING. 393 

with my husband, and what he had done. He answered 
by a sound like a short, low, hollow laugh. Then he 
hovered about without any noise, and we heard him 
speak to Eslinger, whilst she still prayed aloud. Still, 
as before, I always knew when he was going to speak. 
After six o'clock, we saw him no more. In the morn- 
ing my husband mentioned with great surprise that 
his chamber door, which he was sure he had fast bolted 
and locked, even taking out the key when he went to 
bed, he had found wide open." 

On the 24th, Madame Mayer passed the night there 
again, but on this occasion she only saw a white shadow 
coming and going, and standing by the woman, who 
prayed unceasingly. She also heard the shuffling. 

Between prisoners and the person in authority who 
went to observe, the number of those who testify to 
this phenomenon is considerable; and although the 
amount of what was perceived varied according to the 
receptivity- of the subject in each case, the evidence of 
all is perfectly coincident as to the character of the 
phenomena. Some saw only the light; others dis- 
tinguished the form in the midst of it; all heard the 
sound, and perceived the mouldering earthy smell. 

That the receptivity of the women was greater than 
that of the men, after what I have elsewhere said, 
should excite no surprise; the preponderance of the 
sympathetic system in them being sufficient to account 
for the difference. 

Frederica Eollen, from Lowenstein, who was eigln 
weeks in the same cell with Eslinger, was witness to 
all the phenomena, though she only once arrived at 
seeing the spectre in its perfect human form, as the 
latter saw it. But it frequently spoke to her, bidding 
her amend her life; and remember, that it was one who 
had tasted of death that gave her this counsel. This 
circumstance had a great effect upon her. 

When any of them swore, the apparition always 



39i APPARITIONS SEEKING 

evinced much displeasure, grasped 1 1 uun by the throat, 
and forced them to pray. Frequently, when he came 
or went, they said it sounded like a flight of pigeons. 

Catherine Sinn, from Mayenfels, was confined in an 
adjoining room for a fortnight. After her release, she 
was Interrogated by the minister of her parish, and 
deposed that she had known nothing of Eslinger, 
or the spectre, "but every night, being quite alone, 
I heard a rustling and a noise at bhe window which 
looked only into the passage. I felt and heard, though 
1 rou Id not see anybody, that some one A\as moving 
About the room; these sounds were accompanied by 

a cool wind, though the place was closely shut up. 
I heard also a crackling and a shuffling, and a sound 
as if gravel were thrown; but could find none in the 
morning. Once it seemed to me that a hand was 
laid softly on my forehead. I did not like staying 
alone, on account of these bhingsj and begged to be put 
into a room with others; so T was placed with Eslinger 
andFollen, The same things continued here,and bhej 
told me about tin; ghostj but not being alone, I 
not. so frightened. I often hoard him speak; it 
hollow and slow, not like a human voiee; hut I could 

seldom catch the words. When he left the prison, 
which was generally about five in the morning, lie used 

to say, 'Tray! 1 and when we did so, he would add, 
1 God reward you!' 1 never saw him distinctly till the 
last morning I w as there; then I saw a white shadow 

standing by Eslinger's bed. 

aed) "Catherine Sj 

"Minister Binder, Mayenfels/ 1 

It would be tedious were I to ropy thfe depositions of 
all the prisoners, the experience of most of them being 

similar to the above. I will therelore content myself 

with giving an abstract of the most remarkable par- 
ticulars. 

Besides the crackling, rustling as of paper 3 walking, 
shuffling, concussions of the windows, and of their beds, 



THE PRAYERS OF THE uvi :<;. i'Oo 

&o* &c, they heard sometimes a fearful cry; And not 
unfrequently bhe bed covering! were pulled from bhem; 
it appearing bo be the object of bhe spirit to manifest 
itself thus to those bo whom be could not make bimseli 
visible; and as l find this pulling off the bed clothes 
and heaving up the bed, as if some one were under it, 
repeated in a variety <>r cases, foreign and English, I 
conclude the motive to be I he same ?al of tho 

aen heard him speak. 

Ali these depositions are contained in Dv, Kerner . 

report bo bhe magistrates; and he concludes by saying 

bhat bhere can be no doubt of bhe fact of the woman 

Elizabeth Eslinger suffering these annoyances, by what- 

name people may choose bo call them. 

Amongst bhe most remarkable phenomena, in the rati) 
or apparent opening of the door, ho that tin y could »eo 

What .'.-i.hi the paHHago. iv;lin;M:r Maid <>i i;i>*> the Hpirit 

w;i;; often surrounded by a light, and bin eyes looked 
fiery, and bin re sometimes came with him two JambH, 
which occasionally appeared as stars* il< often book 
hold of Eslinger, made her Bit up, and put her handH 
lie might pray; and onee he appeared bo 
bake a pen and paper from under his gown, and wrote, 
laying Lt on her coverlet* 

[t is extremely curiouH that on two ooeaHionu Mh- 

»• saw Dr* Kerner and Justice ETeyd enter with 
bhe ghost, when bhey were not bhere in the body, and 
both times Heyd was enveloped in a black cloud The 
ghost, mi being a ked, told EnKn^er that the eloud 
indicated that trouble was impending. A few days 
afterwards, his child died rery unexpectedly, and dr. 
Kerner now remembered bhat the firnt time KHlinger 
aid she had seen Heyd in this way, his father bad died 
directly afterwards* KLerner attended both patients, 

and wan thuu a:;:iociatod in the nymbol. Pollen al:-:o 
thene two i ui.«.-^ -..;, and upoko, believing bhe 0U6 to 

be \>r. Kerner himself* 

On other occasions, she saw strangers come in with 
the ghost, whom afterwards when they reaUy came in 



396 ArPAKITIONS SEEKING 

the body, she recognised; this seems to have been a sort 
of second sight. 

Dr. K. says, I think justly enough, that if Eslinger 
had been feigning she never would have ventured on 
"what seemed so improbable. 

Some of the women, after the spectre had visibly 
leant over them, or had spoken into their ears, were so 
affected by the odour he diffused, that they vomited, 
and could not eat till they had taken an emetic, and 
those parts of their persons that he touched, became 
painful and swollen, an effect I find produced in nume- 
rous other instances. 

The following particulars are worth observing, in the 
evidence of a girl sixteen years of age, called Margaret 
Laibesberg, who was confined for ten days for plucking 
some grapes in a vineyard. She says, she knew nothing 
about the spectre, but that she was greatly alarmed, 
the first night, at hearing the door burst open, and 
something come shuffling in. Eslinger bade her not 
fear, and said that it would not injure her. The girl, 
however, being greatly terrified every night, and hiding 
her head under the bed-clothos, on the fourth, Eslinger 
got out of her own bed, and coming to her, said, " Do, 
in the name of God, look at him ! He will do you no 
harm, I assure you." " Then," says the girl, "I looked 
out from under the clothes, and I saw two white forms, 
like two lambs — so beautiful that I could have looked 
at them for ever. Between them stood a white, shadowy 
form, as tall as a man, but I was not able to look 
longer, for my eyes failed me." The terrors of this girl 
were so great, that Eslinger had repeatedly occasion to 
get out of bed and fetch her to lie with herself. When 
she could be induced to look, she always saw the figure, 
and he bade her also pray for him. Whenever he 
touched her, which he did on the forehead and eyes, she 
felt pain, but says nothing of any subsequent swelling. 
Both this girl and another, called Neidhardt, who wftf 
brought in on the last day of Margaret L.'s imprison- 



THE PHAYET18 OF THE LIVING. 397 

ment, testified, that on the previous night they had 
heard Eslinger ask the ghost, "Why he looked so angry?" 
and that they had heard him answer, that it was 
u B ecause she had, on the preceding night, neglected to 
pra}r f or him as much as usual," which neglect arose 
from two gentlemen having passed the night in the cell. 

When, on the tenth day, the girl Margaret L. was 
released, she said, that there was something so awful to 
her n this apparition, that she had firmly resolved 
and vowed to be pious, and lead, henceforth, a virtuous 
life 

Some of them seem to have felt little alarm. Maria 
Bar, aged forty-one, said, " I was not afraid, for I have 
a good conscience." The offences for which these women 
were confined appear to have been very slight ones, 
such as quarrelling and so forth. 

In a room that opened into the same passage, men 
were shut up for disputing with the police, neglect of 
regulations, and similar misdemeanors. These persons 
not only heard the noises as above described, such as 
the "walking, shufiiing, opening and shutting the door, 
&c. &c, but some of them saw the ghost. Christian 
Bauer deposed, that he had never heard anything about 
the ghost, but that, being disturbed by a knocking and 
rustling towards three o'clock on the second morning 
of his incarceration, he looked up, and saw a white 
figure bending over him, and heard a strange hollow 
voice say, " You must needs have patience !" He said, 
he thought it must be his grandfather, at which Strieker, 
his companion, laughed. Strieker deposed, that he 
heard a hollow voice say, " You must needs have pa- 
tience/' and that Bauer told him that there was a white 
apparition near him, and that he supposed it was his 
grandfather. Bauer said, that he was frightened the first 
. night, but got used to it, and did not mind. 

It is worthy of observation, that when fchey heard 
the door of the women's room open, they also heard the 
voice of Eslinger praying, which seems as if the doo*- 



398 APPARITIONS SEEKING 

not only appeared to open, ' but actually did so. We 
have already seen that this spirit could open doors. In 
the " Seeress of Prevorst," the doors were constantly 
visibly and audibly opened, as by an unseen hand, when 
she saw a spectre enter; and I know to an absolute 
certainty, that the same phenomenon takes place in a 
house not far from where I am writing ; and this, some- 
times, when there are two people sleeping in the room 
—a lady and a gentleman. The door having been fast 
'locked when they went to bed, the room thoroughly 
Examined, and every possible precaution taken — for they 
are unwilling to believe in the spiritual character of the 
disturbances that annoy them, — they are aroused by a 
consciousness that it is ojoening, and they do find it wide 
open, on rising to investigate the fact. 

One of the most remarkable proofs, either of the force 
of volition or of the electrical powers of the apparition 
that haunted Eslinger, or else of his power to imitate 
sounds, was the real, or apparent, violent shaking of 
the heavy iron-barred window, which it is asserted the 
united efforts of six men could not shake at all, when 
they made the experiment. 

The Supreme Court having satisfied itself that there 
was no imposture in this case, it was proposed that 
come men of science should be invited to investigate 
the strange phenomenon, and endeavour, if possible, to 
explain it. Accordingly, not only Dr. Kerner him- 
self and his son, but many others, passed nights in the 
prison, for this purpose. Amongst these, besides some 
ministers of the Lutheran Church, there was an engraver, 
called Duttenhofer; Wagner, an artist; KapfF, pro' 
lessor of mathematics at Heilbronn ; Fraas, a barrister ; 
Doctors Seyffer and Sicherer, physicians; Heyd, a 
magistrate; Baron Yon Hugel, &c, &c. ; but their per- 
quisitions elicited no more than has been already nar- 
rated ; all heard the noises, most of them saw the lights, 
and some saw the figure. Duttenhofer and Kapff saw 
it without a defined outline; it was itself bright, but 



THE PRAYERS OF THE LIVING. 399* 

did not illuminate the room. Some of the sounds ap- 
peared to them like the discharging of a Ley den jar. 
There was also a throwing of gravel, and a heavy drop- 
ping of water, but neither to be found. Professor 
Klapff says, that he was quite cool and self-possessed, 
till there was such a violent concussion of the heavy- 
barred window, that he thought it must have come in; 
then both he and Duttenhofer felt horror-struck. 

As they could not see the light emitted by the 
spectre when the room was otherwise lighted, they 
were in the dark; but they took every care to ascertain 
that Eslinger was in her bed whilst these things were 
going on. She prayed aloud the whole time, unless 
when speaking to them. By the morning, she used 
to be dreadfully exhausted, from this continual exer- 
tion. 

It is also mentioned, that the straw on which she lay 
was frequently changed and examined, and every means 
taken to ascertain that there was nothing whatever in 
her possession that could enable her to perform any 
sort of jugglery. Her fellow prisoners were also invited 
to tell all they knew or could discover; and a remission 
of their sentences promised to those who would make 
known the imposition, if there were one. 

Dr. Sicherer, who was accompanied by Mr. Fraas, 
says, that having heard of these phenomena, which he 
thought the more unaccountable from the circumstances 
of the woman's age and condition, &c, she being a 
healthy, hard-working person, aged thirty-eight, who 
had never known sickness, he was very desirous ol 
inquiring personally into the affair. 

Whilst they were in the court of the prison, waiting 
for admittance, they heard extraordinary noises, which 
could not be accounted for, and during the night there 
was a repetition of those above described; especially 
the apparent throwing of gravel, or peas, which seemed 
to fall so near him, that he involuntarily covered his 
face. Then followed the feeling of a cool wind: and 



400 APPARITIONS SEEKING 

then the oppressive odour, for which, he says, he can 
find no comparison, and which almost took away his 
breath. He was perfectly satisfied that it was no smell 
originating in the locality or the state of the prison. 
Simultaneously with the perception of this odour, he saw 
a thick grey cloud, of no defined shape, near Eslinger's 
oed. When this cloud disappeared, the odour was no 
longer perceptible. It was a fine moonlight night, and 
there was light enough in the room to distinguish the beds, 
&c. The same phenomena recurred several times during 
the night; Eslinger was heard, each time the ghost was 
there, praying and reciting hymns. They also heard 
her say, "Don't press my hands so hard together!" 
" Don't touch me !" and so forth. The voice of the 
spirit they did not hear. Towards three or four o'clock, 
they heard heavy blows, footsteps, opening and shutting 
of the door, and a concussion of the whole house, that 
made them think it was going to fall on their heads. 
About six o'clock they saw the phantom again; and 
altogether these phenomena recurred at least ten times 
in the course of the night. 

Dr. Sicherer concludes by saying, that he had under- 
taken the investigation with a mind entirely unpre- 
possessed; and that in the report he made at the desire 
of the Supreme Court, he had recorded his observations 
as conscientiously as if he had been upon a jury. He 
adds, that he had examined everything; and that 
neither in the person of the woman, nor in any other 
of the inmates of the prison, could he find the smallest 
grounds for suspicion, nor any clue to the mystery, 
which, in a scientific point of view, appeared to him 
utterly inexplicable. Dr. Sicherer's report is dated 
Heilbronn, January 8, 1836. 

Mr. Fraas, who accompanied him, confirms the above 
awfciement in every particular; with the addition, that 
he several times saw a light of a varying circumference 
moving about the room; and that it was whilst he saw 
this, that the woman told him the ghost was there. 



THE PRAYERS OF THE LIVING. 401 

He also felt an oppression of the breath, and a pressure 
on his forehead each time before the apparition came, 
especially once, when, although he had carefully ab- 
stained from mentioning his sensations, she told him it 
was standing close at his head. He stretched out his 
hand; but perceived nothing, except a cool wind and 
an overpowering smell. 

Dr. Seyffer being there one night with Dr. Kerner, 
in order to exclude the possibility of light entering 
through the window, they stopped it up. They, how- 
ever, saw the phosphorescent light of the spectre as 
before. It moved quietly about; and remained a, quar- 
ter of an hour. The room was otherwise perfectly 
dark; the sounds accompanying it were like the drop- 
ping of water; and the discharge of a Leyden jar. They 
fully ascertained that these phenomena did not proceed 
from the woman. 

I have already given the depositions of Madame 
Mayer, the wife of the deputy-governor, or keeper of 
the prison, who is spoken of as a highly respectable 
person. Mayer, himself, however, though quite unable 
to account for all these extraordinary proceedings, 
found great difficulty in believing that there was any- 
thing supernatural in the affair; and he told Eslinger 
that if she wished him to be convinced, she must send 
the ghost to do it. 

He says, " The night after I had said this, I went to 
bed and to sleep, little expecting such a visitor; but 
towards midnight, I was awakened by something touch- 
ing my left elbow; this was followed by a painj and in 
the morning, when I looked at the place, I saw several 
blue spots. I told Eslinger that this was not enough, 
and that she must tell the ghost to touch my other 
elbow. This was done on the following night, and, at 
thi same time, I perceived a smell like putrefaction, 
The blue spots followed." (It will be remembered that 
Eslinger had blue spots also.) 

Mayer continues to say, that the spectre made known 



403 APPARITIONS SEEKING 

its presence in his chamber by various sounds, such as 
were heard in the other part of the house. He never 
law the figure distinctly, but his wife did; she always 
frayed when it was there. He, however, felt the cool 
wind that they all described. 

The ghost told Eslinger that he should continue his 
visits to the prison after she had quitted it, and he did 
so. The- second night after her release, they felt his 
approach, especially from the cool wind, and Madame 
Mayer desired him to testify his presence to her husband. 
Im mediately there were sounds like a wind instrument, 
and these were repeated at her desire. 

The prisoners also heard and felt the apparition after 
Eslinger's departure, and Mayer says he is perfectly 
assured, that in this jail, where the inmates were fre- 
quently changed, everybody was locked up, and every 
place thoroughly examined, it was utterly impossible 
for any trick to be played. Besides which, all parties 
agreed that the sounds were often of a description that 
could not have been produced by any known means. 

But it was not to the prison alone that this apparition 
confined his visits. To whomsoever Eslinger sent him, 
he went, testifying his presence by the same signs as 
above described. 

He visited the chambers of several of the magistrates, 
of a teacher called Neuffer, of Referendary Burger, of 
a citizen named Rumniel, and many others. Of these, 
some only perceived his presence by the noises, the cool 
air. the smell, or the touch; others saw the light also, and 
others perceived the figure with more or less distinctness. 

A Mr. Dorr, of Heilbronn, seems to have scoffed very 
much at these rumours, and Dr. Kerner bade Eslinger 
ask the ghost to convince him, which she did. 

Mr. Dorr says, " When I heard these things talked 
of, I always laughed at them, and was thought very 
sensible for so doing; now I shall be laughed at in my 
turn, no doubt." 

He then relates, that on the morning of the 30tb 
December, 1835, he awoke, as usuaL about five o'clock. 



THE PKAYERS OF THE LIVING. *u3 

and was thinking of some business he had in hand, 
when he became conscious that there was something 
near him, and he felt as if it blew cold upon him. He 
started up, thinking some animal had got into his room, 
but could find nothing. Next he heard a noise, like 
sparks from an electrical machine, and then a report 
close to his right ear. Had there been anything visible, 
it was light enough to see it. This report was frequently 
heard in the prison. 

Wherever the apparition once made a visit, he ge- 
nerally continued to go for several successive nights. 
He also visited Professor Kapff, at Heilbronn, and 
Baron von Hugel, at Eschenau, without being desired 
to do so by Eslinger; and Neuffer, whom he also went 
to, she knew nothing of. 

When he visited Dr. Kerner's chamber, his wife who 
had prided herself on her incredulity, and boasted of 
being born on St. Thomas's day, was entirely converted, 
for she not only heard him, but saw him distinctly. He 
visited them for several nights, accompanied by the 
noises and the light. 

One night, whilst lying awake observing these phe- 
nomena,* they fancied they heard their horse come out 
of .his stable, which was under their room. In the 
morning, he was found standing outside with his halter 
on; it was not broken, and it was evident that the 
horse had not got loose by any violence. Moreover, the 
door of the stable was closed behind him, as it had been 
At night, when he was shut up. 

Dr. K.'s sister, who came from a distance to visit 
them, had heard very little about this affair, yet she 
was awakened by a sound that seemed like some one 
trying to speak into her ear; and looking up, she saw- 
two stars, like those described by Margaret Laibesberg. 
. She observed that they emitted no rays. She also felt 
the cool air, and perceived the corpse-like odour. This 
odour accompanied the ghost even when he appeared at 
Heilbronn. 

It is remarkable that some of these persons, both 



404 APPARITIONS SEEKING 

men and women, felt themselves unable to move or 
call out, whilst the spectre was there; and that they 
were relieved the moment he went away. They appeared 
to be magnetised; but this feeling was by no means 
universal. Many were perfectly composed and self- 
possessed the whole time, and made their observations 
to each other. All agreed that the speaking of the 
apparition seemed like that of a person making efforts 
to speak. Now, as we are to presume that he did not 
speak by means of organs, as we do, but that he 
imitated the sounds of words as he imitated other 
sounds, by some means with which we are unacquainted 
— for since the noises were heard by everybody within 
hearing, we must suppose that they actually existed — 
we, who know the extreme difficulty of imitating 
human speech, may conceive how this imitation should 
be very defective. 

Dutthenhofer and others remarked, that there was 
no echo from the sounds, as well as that the phospho- 
rescence shed no light around; and though the spectre 
could touch them, or produce the sensation that he did, 
they could not feel him; but, as in all similar cases, 
could thrust their hands through what appeared to be 
his body. The sensation of his falling tears, and the 
marks they left, seem most unaccountable; and yet, in 
the records of a ghost that haunted the Countess of 
Eberstein, in 1685, we find the same thing asserted. 
This account was made public by the authority of the 
Consistorial Court, and with the consent of the family. 

At length, on the 11th of February, the ghost took 
his departure from Eslinger; at least after that day he 
was no more seen or heard by her or anybody else. He 
had always entreated her to go to Wimmenthal, where 
he had formerly lived, to pray for him; and after she 
was released from the gaol, by the advice of her friends 
she did it. Some of them accompanied her; and they 
saw the apparition near her whilst she w*£ kneeling in 
the opon air, though not all with equal distinctness. 



THE PRAYERS OF THE LIVING. 403 

A very respectable woman, called Worner, a stranger 
to Eslinger, whom she says she never saw or spoke to 
till that day, offered to make oath that she had accom- 
panied her to Wimmenthal, and that, with the other 
friends, she had stood about thirty paces off, quite 
silent and still, whilst the woman knelt and prayed; 
and that she had seen the apparition of a man, accom- 
panied by two smaller spectres, hovering near her. 
" When the prayer was ended, he went close to her, 
and there was a light like a falling star; then I saw 
something like a white cloud that seemed to float away; 
and after that we saw no more." 

Eslinger had been very unwilling to undertake tins 
expedition ; she took leave of her children before she 
started, and evidently expected mischief would befall 
her; and now, on approaching her, they found her 
lying cold and insensible. When they had revived 
her, she told them that on bidding her farewell, before 
he ascended, which he did, accompanied by two bright 
infantine forms, the ghost had asked her to give him 
her hand; and that, after wrapping it in her handker- 
chief, she had complied. A small flame had risen from 
the handkerchief when he touched it; and they found 
the marks of his fingers like burns, but without any 
smell. This, however, was not the cause of her fainting, 
but she had been terrified by a troop of frightful 
animals that she saw rush past her, when the spirit 
floated away. 4 

From this time nobody, either in the prison or oat of 
it, was troubled with this apparition. 

This is certainly a very extraordinary story; and, 
what is more extraordinary, such cases do not seem to 
be very uncommon in Germany. I meet with many 
recorded : and an eminent German scholar of my ac- 
quaintance tells me that he has also heard of several, 
and was surprised that we have no similar instances 
here. If these things occurred merely amongst the 
Roman Catholics, we might be inclined to suppose they 



406 APPARITIONS SEEKING 

had some connexion with their notion of purgatory : 
but, on the contrary, it appears to be amongst the 
Lutheran population they chiefly occur ; insomuch that 
it has even been suggested that the omission of prayers 
for the dead in the Lutheran Church is the cause of 
the phenomenon. But, on the other hand, as in the 
present case, and in several others, the person that re- 
visits the earth was of the Catholic persuasion when 
alive, we are bound to suppose that he had the benefit 
of his own Church's prayers. I am here assuming that 
all the above strange phenomena were really produced 
by the agency of an apparition : if they were not, what 
were they 1 The three physicians, who were amongst 
the visitors, must have been perfectly aware of the 
contagious nature of some forms of nervous disorder, 
and from the previous incredulity of two of them they 
must have been quite prepared to regard these pheno- 
mena from that point of view; yet they seem unable to 
bring them under the category of sensuous illusions. 

The apparently electrical nature of the lights, and of 
several of the sounds, is very remarkable; as are also 
the swellings produced on some of the persons by the 
touch of the ghost, which remind us of Professor Hofer's 
case, mentioned in a former chapter. The aj)paritions 
of the dog and the lambs also, strange as they are, are 
by no means isolated cases. These appearances seem to 
be symbolical : the father had been evil, and had led 
his son to do evil, and he appeared in the degraded 
form of a dog; and the innocence of the children, who 
macl been, probably, in some way wronged, was sym- 
bolized by their appearing as lambs. " If I had lived 
as a beast," said an aj)parition to the Seeress of Pre- 
vorst, " I should appear as a beast." These symbolical 
transfigurations cannot appear very extravagant to 
those who accept the belief of many theologians, that 
the serpent of the garden of Eden was an evil spirit 
incarnated in that degraded form. 

How far the removal of the horse out of his stable 



THE PRAYEHS OF THE LIVING. 407 

^ras connected with the rest of the phenomena, it is 
impossible to say; but a similar circumstance has very 
lately occurred with regard to a dog that was locked 
up in the house in this neighbourhood, which I have 
several times alluded to, where footsteps and rustlings 
are heard, doors are opened, and a feeling that some 
one is blowing or breathing upon them, is felt by the 
inhabitants, 

The holes burnt in the handkerchief are also quite 
in accordance with many other relations of the kind, 
especially that of the maid of Orlach, and also that 
of the Hamerschem family, mentioned in a Stilling's 
Pneumatology," when a ghost, who had been, as he 
said, waiting one hundred and twenty years for some 
one to release him by their prayers, was seen to take 
a handkerchief, on which he left the marks of his five 
fingers, appearing like burnt spots. A Bible he touched 
was marked in the same manner, and these two me- 
mentos of the apparition were carefully retained in the 
family. This particularity also reminds us of Lord 
Tyrone's leaving the marks of his hand on Lady Beres- 
ford's wrist, on which she ever afterwards wore a black 
ribbon. In several instances I find it reported that 
when an apparition is requested to render himself 
visible to, or to enter into communication with, other 
persons besides those to whom he addresses himself, he 
answers that it is impossible; and in other cases that 
he could do it, but that the consequences to those per- 
sons would be pernicious. This, together with the 
circumstance of their waiting so long for the right 
person, tends strongly to support the hypothesis that 
an intense magnetic rapport is necessary to any facility 
of intercourse. It also appears that the power of esta- 
blishing this rapport with one or more persons varies 
exceedingly amongst these denizens of a spiritual world, 
"some being only able to render themselves audible, 
others to render themselves visible to one person*, 
whilst a few seem to possess considerably greater powers 
or privileges, 



408 APPARITIONS SEEKING 

Another particular to be observed is, that in many 
instances, if not in all, these spirits are what the Ger- 
mans call gebannt, that is, banned, or proscribed, or, as it 
were, tethered to a certain spot, which they can occa- 
sionally leave, as Anton did the cellar at Wimmenthal, 
to which he was gebannt, but from which they cannot 
free themselves. To this spot they seemed to bo 
attached, as by an invisible chain, whether by the 
memciy of a crime committed there, or by a. buried 
treasure, or even by its being the receptacle of their 
own bodies. In short, it seems perfectly clear, ad- 
mitting them to be apparitions of the dead, that, what- 
ever the bond may be which keeps them down, they 
cannot quit the earth; they are, as St. Martin says, 
remainers, not returners, and this seems to be the 
explanation of haunted houses. 

In the year 1827, Christian Eisengrun, a respectable 
citizen of JSTeckarsteinach, was visited by a ghost of the 
above kind, and the particulars were judicially re- 
corded. He was at Eherbach, in Baden, working as a 
potter, which was his trade, in the manufactory of 
Mr. Gehrig, when he was one night awakened by a 
noise in his chamber, and, on looking up, he saw a faint 
light, which presently assumed a human form, attired 
in a loose gown; he could see no head. He hid his own 
head under the clothes; but it presently spoke, and told 
him that he was destined to release it, and that for that 
purpose he must go to the Catholic churchyard of 
Neckarsteinach, and there, for twenty-one successive 
days, repeat the following verse from the New Testa- 
ment, before the stone sepulchre there: — 

" For what man knoweth the things of a man, save 
the spirit of man which is in him? So the things 
of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God." — 
1 Cor. ii. 11. 

The ghost having repeated his visits and his request, 
the man consulted his master what he should do, and 
he ad\'ised him not to trifle with the apparition, but to 



THE PRAYERS OF ^E LIVING. 409 

do what lie required, adding that he had known many 
similar instances. Upon this, Eisengrun went to 
Neckarsteinacb, and addressed himself to the Catholic 
priest there, named Seitz, who gave him the same 
counsel, together with his blessing, and also a hymn of 
Luther's, which he bade liim learn and repeat, as well 
as the verse, when he visited the sepulchre. 

As there was only one stone sepulchre in the church- 
yard, Eisengrun had no difficulty in finding it; and 
whilst he performed the service imposed on him by the 
ghost, the latter stood on the grave with his hands 
folded, as if in prayer; but when he repeated the hymn, 
he moved rapidly backwards and forwards, but still not 
overstepping the limits of the stone. The man, though 
very frightened, persevered in the thing for the time 
imposed — tw^enty-one days; and during this period he 
saw the perfect form of the apparition, which had no 
covering on its head, except very white hair. It 
always kept its hands folded, and had large eyes, in 
which he never perceived any motion; this filled him 
with horror. Many persons went to witness the 
ceremony. 

The surviving nephews and nieces of the apparition 
brought an action against Eisengrun, and they com 
trived to have him seized and carried to the magistrate's 
house one day, at the time he should have gone to the 
churchyard. But the ghost came and beckoned, and 
made signs to him to follow him, till the man was so 
much affected and terrified, that he burst into tears. 
The two magistrates could not see the spectre, but 
feeling themselves seized with a cold shudder, they con- 
sented to his going. 

He was then publicly examined in court, together 
with the offended family, and a number of witnesses, 
and the result was, that he was permitted to continue 
the service for the twenty- one days, after which he 
never saw or heard more of the ghost, who had been 
formerly a rich timber-merchant- The terror and 



410 APPAitlTIONS SEEKING THE PRAYERS, ETC. 

anxiety attendant on these daily visits to the church- 
yard affected Eisengrun so much, that he was soma 
time before he recovered his usual health. He had all 
his life been a ghost-seer, but had never had communi- 
cation with any before this event. 

The Catholic priest, in this instance, appears to have 
been more liberal than the deceased timber-merchant, 
for the latter did not seem to like the Lutheran hymn, 
which the former prescribed. His dissatisfaction, how- 
ever, may have arisen from their making any addition to 
the formula he had himself indicated. 



411 



CHAPTER XVL 

THE POLTERGEIST OF THE GERMANS, AND 
POSSESSION. 

With regard to the so-called hauntings, referred to in 
the preceding chapter, there seems reason to believe 
that the invisible guest was formerly a dweller upon 
earth, in the flesh, who is prevented by some circum- 
stance which we are not qualified to explain, from 
pursuing the destiny of the human race, by entering 
freely into the next state prepared for him. He is like 
an unfortunate caterpillar that cannot entirely free 
itself from the integuments of its reptile life which 
chain it to the earth, whilst its fluttering wings vainly 
seek to bear it into the region to which it now belongs. 
But there is another kind of haunting, which is still 
more mysterious and strange, though by no means un- 
frequent, and which, from the odd, sportive, mis- 
chievous nature of the disturbances created, one can 
scarcely reconcile to our notions of what we under- 
stand by the term ghost For in those cases where 
the unseen visitant appears to be the spirit of a 
person deceased, we see evidences of grief; remorse, and 
dissatisfaction, together with, in many instances, a dis- 
position to repeat the acts of life, or at least to stimu- 
late a repetition of them: but they are seldom sportive 
or mischievous, nor, except where an injunction is dis- 
i obeyed, or a request refused, are there generally 1 any 
evidences of anger or malignity. But in the othei 
; cases alluded to, the annoyances appear rather like the 
tricks of a mischievous imp. I refer to what the 



412 THE POLTBIiaEIST 

Germans call the Poltergeist, or racketing spectre, for 
the phenom3non is known in all countries, and has 
been known in all ages. 

Since hearing the phenomenon of the electric girl, 
which attracted so much attention and occasioned so 
much controversy in Paris lately, and other similar 
cases, which have since reached me, I feel doubtful 
whether some of these strange circumstances may not 
have been connected with electricity in one form or 
another. The famous story of what is familiarly called 
the Stockwell Ghost, for example, might possibly be 
brought under this category. I have heard some people 
assert that the mystery of this affair was subsequently 
explained away, and the whole found to be a trick. 
But that is a mistake. Some years ago I was acquainted 
with persons whose parents were living on the spot at 
the time, who knew all the details, and to them it 
remained just as great a mystery as ever. Not the 
smallest light had ever been thrown upon it. People 
are so glad to get rid of troublesome mysteries of 
this description, that they are always ready to say, 
€i The trick has been found out !" and those who pride 
themselves on not believing idle stories, are to the last 
degree credulous when " the idle story" natters their 
scepticism. 

The circumstances of the so-called Stockwell Ghost, 
which I extract from a report published at the time, are 
as follows: — 

The pamphlet was entitled — 

" An Authentic, Candid, and Circumstantial Narrative, 
of the astonishing Transactions at Stockwell, in the 
County of Surrey, on Monday and Tuesday, the 6th 
and 7th days of January, 1772, containing a Series 
of the most surprising and unaccountable Events 
that ever happened, which continued from first to 
last, upwards of Twenty Hours, and at different 
places. 



OF THE GERMANS, ETC. 413 

w Published with the consent and approbation of the 

family and other parties concerned, to authenticate 

which, the original copy is signed by them. 

" Before we enter upon a description of the most- ex- 
traordinary transactions that perhaps ever happened. 
we shall begin with an account of the parties who were 
principally concerned, and, injustice to them, give their 
characters, by which means the impartial world may 
see what credit is due to the following narrative. 

" The events indeed are of so strange and singular a 
nature, that we cannot be at all surprised the public 
should be doubtful of the truth of them, more espe- 
cially as there have been too many impositions of this 
sort; but, let us consider, here are no sinister ends to 
be answered, no contributions to be wished for, nor 
would be accepted, as the parties are in reputable 
situations and good circumstances, particularly Mrs. 
Golding, who is a lady of an independent fortune. 
Richard Fowler and his wife might be looked upon as 
an exception to this assertion ; but as their loss was 
trivial, they must be left out of the question, except so 
far as they appear corroborating evidences. 

" Mr. Pain's maid lost nothing. 

." How or by what means these transactions were 
brought about has never transpired : we have only to 
rest our confidence on the veracity of the parties, whose 
descriptions have been most strictly attended to, with- 
out the least deviation: nothing here offered is either 
exaggerated or diminished; the whole stated in the 
clearest manner just as they occurred : as such only we 
lay them before the candid and impartial public. 

"Mrs. Golding, an elderly lady at Stockwell, in 
Surrey, at whose house the transactions began, was 
born in the same parish (Lambeth), has lived in it ever 
since, and has always been well known and respected 
as a gentle woman of unblemished honour and character. 
Mrs, Pain, a niece of Mrs. Golding, has been married 
several years to Mr. Pain, a farmer, at Brixton Cause- 



114 . THE POLTERGEIST 

way, a little above Mr. Angel's, has several children 
and is well known and respected in the parish. Mary 
Martin, Mr. Pain's servant, an elderly woman, has lived 
two years with them, and four years with Mrs. Golding, 
where she came from. Richard Fowler lives almost 
opposite to Mr. Pain, at the Brick Pound, an honest, 
industrious, and sober man. And Sarah Fowler, wife 
to the above, is an industrious and sober woman. 

" These are the subscribing evidences that we must 
rest the truth of the facts upon; yet there are numbers 
of other persons who were eye-witnesses of many of the 
transactions during the time they happened, all of whom 
must acknowledge the truth of them. 

" Another person who bore a principal part in these 
scenes was Ann Robinson, Mrs. Golding's maid, a 
young woman, about twenty years old, who had lived 
with her but one week and three days. So much for 
the Historice Personce; and now for the narrative. 

" On Monday, January 6th, 1772, about ten o'clock 
in the forenoon, as Mrs. Golding was in her par- 
lour, she heard the china and glasses in the back 
kitchen tumble down and break; her maid came to her 
and told her the stone plates were falling from th6 
shelf; Mrs. Goldiug went into the kitchen and saw 
them broke. Presently after a row of plates from the 
next shelf fell down likewise, whilst she was there, and 
nobody near them; this astonished her much, and while 
she was thinking about it, other things in different 
places began to tumble about, some of them breaking, 
attended with violent noises all over the house : a clock 
tumbled down and the case broke; a lantern that 
hung on the stair-case was thrown down, and the glass 
broke to pieces; an earthen pan of salted beef broke to 
pieces, and the beef fell about: all this increased her 
surprise, and brought several persons about her, among 
whom was Mr. Powlidge, a carpenter, who gave it 
as his opinion that the foundation was giving way, 
and that the house was tumbling down, occasioned by 



OF THE GERMANS, ETC. 415 

the too great weight of an additional room erected 
above \ so ready are we to discover natural causes for 
everything ! But no such thing happened, as the reader 
will find, for whatever was the cause, that cause ceased 
almost as soon as Mrs. Golding and her maid left any 
place, and followed them wherever they went. Mrs. 
Golding ran into Mr. Gresham's house, a, gentleman 
living next door to her, where she fainted. 

(i In the interim, Mr. Bowlidge and other persona 
were removing Mrs. Golding's effects from her house, 
for fear of the consequences he had prognosticated. 
At this time all was quiet; Mrs. Golding's maid re- 
maining in her house, was gone up stairs, and when 
called upon several times to come down, for fear of the 
dangerous situation she was thought to be in, she 
answered very coolly, and after some time came down 
as deliberately, without any seeming fearful apprehen- 
sions. 

"Mrs. Pain was sent for from Brixton Causeway, 
and. desired to come directly, as her aunt was supposed 
to be dead: this was the message to her. When Mrs. 
Pain came, Mrs. Golding was come to herself, but very 
faint. 

"Among the persons who were present was Mr. 
Gardner, a surgeon, of Clapham; whom Mrs. Pain 
desired to bleed her aunt, which he did; Mrs. Pain 
asked him if the blood should be thrown away; he 
desired it might not, as he would examine it when cold. 
These minute particulars would not be taken notice oi 
but as a chain to what follows. For the next circum- 
stance is of a more astonishing nature than anything 
that had preceded it; the blood that was just congealed, 
sprang out of the basin upon the floor, and presently 
after the basin broke to pieces: this china basin was 
the only thing broken belonging to Mr. Gresham : a 
bottle of rum that stood by it broke at the same time. 

" Amongst the things that were removed to Mr. 
Gresham's was a tray full of china, &c., a japan bread 



416 THE POLTERGEIST 

basket, some mahogany waiters, with some bottles of 
liquors, jars of pickles, &c, and a pier glass, which was 
taken down by Mr. Saville (a neighbour of Mrs. Gold- 
ing's); he gave it to one Robert Hames, who laid it on 
the grass-plat at Mr. Gresham's: but before he could 
put it out of his hands, some parts of the frame on 
each side new off: it rained at that time. Mrs. Golding 
desired it might be brought into the parlour, where it 
was put under a side-board, and a dressing- glass along 
with it: it had not been there long before the glasses 
and china which stood on the side-board began to 
tumble about and fall down, and broke both the glasses 
to pieces. Mr. Saville and others being asked to drink 
a glass of wine or rum, both the bottles broke in pieces 
before they were uncorked. 

" Mrs. Golding's surprise and fear increasing, she did 
not know what to do, or where to go ; wherever she 
and her maid were, these strange destructive circum- 
stances followed her, and how to help or free herself 
from them, was not in her power or any other person's 
present: her mind was one confused chaos, lost to her- 
self and everything about her, drove from her own 
home, and afraid there would be none other to receive 
her: at last she left Mr. Gresham's, and went to Mr. 
Mayling's, a gentleman at the next door; here she staye 
about three quarters of an hour, during which time 
nothing happened. Her maid stayed at Mr. Gresham's, 
to put up what few things remained unbroken of he: 
mistress's, in a back apartment, when a jar of pickles 
that stood upon a table turned upside down, then a jar 
of raspberry jam broke to pieces, next two mahogany 
waiters and a quadrille-box likewise broke to pieces. 

" Mrs. Pain, not choosing her aunt should stay too 
long at Mr. Mayling's, for fear of being troublesome, 
persuaded her to go to her house at Rush Common, 
near Brixton Causeway, where she would endeavour to 
make her as happy as she could, hoping by this time 
all was over, as nothing had happened at that gentle- 



'e 

i 



OF THE GERMANS, ETC. 4 IT 

man's house, while she was there. This was about two 
o'clock in the afternoon. 

" Mr. and Miss Gresham were at Mr. Pain's house 
when Mrs. Pain, Mrs. Golding, and her maid went 
there. It being about dinner time, they all dined 
together; in the interim, Mrs. Golding's servant was 
sent to her house to see how things remained. When 
she returned, she told them nothing had happened since 
they left it. Some time after, Mr. Gresham and Miss 
went home, everything remaining quiet at Mr. Pain's; 
but about eight o'clock in the evening a fresh scene 
began; the first thing that happened, was a whole row 
of pewter dishes, except one, fell from off a shelf to 
the middle of the floor, rolled about a little while, then 
settled; and, what is almost beyond belief, as soon as 
they were quiet, turned upside down; they were then 
put on the dresser, and went through the same a second 
time; next fell a whole row of pewter plates from off 
the second shelf over the dresser to the ground, and 
being taken up and put on the dresser one in another, 
they were thrown down again. 

" The next thing was two eggs that were upon one 
of the pewter shelves; one of them flew off, crossed the 
kitchen, struck a cat on the head, and then broke in 
pieces. 

" Next, Mary Martin, Mrs. Pain's servant, went to 
stir the kitchen fire; she got to the right-hand side of 
it, being a large chimney, as is usual in farm houses; a 
pestle and mortar, that stood nearer the left-hand end 
of the chimney shelf, jumped about six feet on the floor. 
Then went candlesticks and other brasses, scarce any- 
thing remaining in its place. After this, the glasses 
and china were put down on the floor for fear of under- 
going the same fate; they presently began to dance and 
tumble about, and then broke to pieces. A teapot, that 
was among them, flew to Mrs. Golding's maid's foot, 
and struck it. 

" A glass tumbler that was put on the floor, jumped 



418 THE POLTERGEIST 

about two feet and then broke. Another that stood 
by it jumped about at the same time, but did not 
break till some hours after, when it jumped again, and 
then broke. A china bowl that stood in the parlour 
jumped from the floor to behind a table that stood 
there. This was most astonishing, as the distance from 
where it stood was between seven and eight feet, but 
was not broke. It was put back by Richard Fowler to 
its place, where it remained some time, and then flew 
to pieces, 

" The next thing that followed was a mustard pot, 
that jumped out of a closet and was broken. A single 
cup that stood upon the table (almost the only thing 
remaining) jumped up, flew across the kitchen, ringing 
like a bell, and then was dashed to pieces against the 
dresser. A candlestick that stood on the chimney- 
shelf flew across the kitchen to the parlour door, at 
about fifteen feet distance. A tea-kettle, under the 
dresser, was thrown out about two feet; another kettle, 
that stood at one end of the range, was thrown against the 
iron that is fixed to prevent children falling into the fire. 
A tumbler with rum-and- water in it that stood upon 
a waiter upon a table in the parlour, jumped about ten 
feet, and was broken. The table then fell down, and 
along with it a silver tankard belonging to Mrs. Gold- 
ing, the waiter, in which stood the tumbler, and a 
candlestick. A case bottle then flew to pieces. 

" The next circumstance was a ham that hung in one 
side of the kitchen chimney; it raised itself from the 
hook and fell down to the ground. Some time after, 
another ham that hung on the other side of the chimney, 
likewise underwent the same fate. Then a flitch of 
bacon, which hung up in the same chimney, fell down, 

"All the family were eye-witnesses to these circling 
stances, as well as other persons, some of whom were so 
alarmed and shocked, that they could not bear to stay, 
and were happy in getting away, though the unhapj)y 
family were left in the midst of their distresses. Most 
of the genteel families around were continually sending 



OF THE GERMANS, ETC. 419 

to inquire after them, and whether all was over or not. 
Is it not surprising that some among them had not the 
inclination and resolution to try to unravel this most 
intricate affair, at a time when it would have been in 
their power to have done so 1 there certainly was suffi- 
cient time for so doing, as the whole, from first to last, 
continued upwards of twenty hours. 

" At all the times of action, Mrs. Golding's servant 
was walking backwards and forwards, either in the 
kitchen or parlour, or wherever some of the family 
happened go be. Nor could they get her to sit down 
five minutes together, except at one time for about half 
an hour towards the morning, when the family were at 
prayers in the parlour; then all was quiet: but in the 
midst of the greatest confusion, she was as much com- 
posed as at any other time, and with uncommon cool- 
ness of temper advised her mistress not to be alarmed 
or uneasy, as she said these things could not be helped. 
Thus she argued, as if they were common occurrences 
which must happen in every family. 

a This advice surprised and startled her mistress 
almost as much as the circumstances that occasioned it. 
For how can we suppose that a girl of about twenty 
years old (an age when female* timidity is too often 
assisted by superstition) could remain in the midst of 
such calamitous circumstances (except they proceed 
from causes best known to herself) and not be struck 
with the same terror as every other person was who wa£ 
present % These reflections led Mr. Pain, and at the 
end of the transactions, likewise Mrs. Golding^ to think 
that she was not altogether so unconcerned as she ap- 
peared to be. But hitherto, the whole remains mys- 
terious and unravelled. 

" About ten o'clock at night, they sent over the way 
to Richard Fowler, to desire he would come and stay 
with them. He came, and continued till one in the 
morning, and was so terrified that he could remain no 
longer. 

" As Mrs. Goldmg could not be persuaded to go to 



420 THE POLTERGEIST 

bed, Mrs. Pain at that time (one o'clock) made an 
excuse to go up stairs to her youngest child, mder pre- 
tence of getting it to sleep, but she really acknowledges 
it was through fear, as she declares she could not sit up 
to see such strange things going on, as everything, one 
after another, was broken, till there was not above two 
or three cups and saucers remaining out of a consider- 
able quantity of china, &c, which was destroyed to the 
amount of some pounds. 

<: About five o'clock on Tuesday morning, Mrs. Go 
ing went up to her niece, and desired her to get up, as 
the noises and destruction were so great, she could con- 
tinue in the house no longer. At this time all the 
tables, chairs, drawers, &c, were tumbling about. 
When Mrs. Pain came down, it was amazing beyond 
all description. Their only security then was to quit 
the house, for fear of the same catastrophe as had been 
expected the morning before, at Mrs. Golding's; in con- 
sequence of this resolution, Mrs. Golding and her maid 
went over the way to Bichard Fowler's. "When Mrs. 
Golding's maid had seen her safe to Richard Fowler's, 
she came back to Mrs. Pain, to help her to dress the 
children in the barn, where she had carried them for 
fear of the house falling. At this time all was quiet; 
they then went to Fowler's, and then began the same 
scene as had happened at the other places. It must be 
remarked, all was quiet here as well as elsewhere, till 
the maid returned. 

" When they got to Mr. Fowler's, he began to light 
a fire in his back room. When done, he put the candle 
and candlestick upon a table in the fore room. This 
apartment Mrs. Golding and her maid had passed 
through. Another candlestick with a tin lamp m it, 
that stood hy it, were both dashed together, and fell 
to the ground. A lantern with which Mrs. Golding 
was lighted across the road, sprang from a hook to the 
ground, and a quantity of oil spilled on the floor. The 
last thing was the basket of coals tumbled over; thfc 



OF THE GEKMANS, ETC. 421 

coals rolling about the room; the maid then desired 
Richard Fowler not to let her mistress remain there, as 
she said ; wherever she was the same things would fol- 
low. In consequence of this advice, and fearing greater 
losses to himself, he desired she would quit his house ; 
but first begged her to consider within herself, for her 
own and the public's sake, whether or not she had not 
been guilty of some atrocious crime, for which Provi- 
dence was determined to pursue her on this side of the 
grave, for he could not help thinking she was the object 
that was to be made an example to posterity, by the 
all-seeing eye of Providence, for crimes which but too 
often none but that Providence can penetrate, and by 
such means as these bring to light. 

" Thus was the poor gentlewoman's measure of afflic- 
tion complete, not only to have undergone all which 
has been related, but to have added to it the character of 
a bad and wicked woman, when till this time she was 
esteemed as a most deserving person. In candour to 
Fowler, he could not be blamed; what could he do ? 
what would any man have done that was so circum- 
stanced? Mrs. Golding soon satisfied him; she told 
him she would not stay in his house, or any other per- 
son's, as her conscience was quite clear, and she could 
as well wait the will of Providence in her own house as 
in any other place whatever : upon which she and her 
maid went home. Mr. Pain went with them. After 
they had got to Mrs. Golding's, the last time, the same 
transactions once more began upon the remains that 
were left. 

u A nine-gallon cask of beer, that was in the cellar, 
the door being open, and no person near it, turned 
upside down. A pail of water that stood on the floor, 
boiled like a pot. A box of candles fell from a shelf in 
the kitchen to the floor; they rolled out, but none were 
broken: and a round mahogany table overset in the 
parlour. 

" Mr. Pain than desired Mrs. Golding to send her 



122 THE POLTERGEIST 

maid for his wife to come to them; when she was gone, 
all was quiet; upon her return she was immediately 
discharged; and no disturbances have happened since; this 
was between six and seven o'clock on Tuesday morning. 

"At Mrs. Golding's were broken the quantity of three 
pails-fall of glass, china, &c. At Mrs. Pain's they filled 
two pails. 

"Thus ends the narrative: a true, circumstantial, and 
faithful account of which we have laid before the public; 
and have endeavoured, as much as possible, throughout 
the whole, to state only facts, without presuming to 
obtrude any opinion on them. If we have in part 
hinted anything that may appear unfavourable to the 
girl, it is not from a determination to charge her with 
the cause, right or wrong, but only from a strict 
adherence to truth, most sincerely wishing this extra- 
ordinary affair may be unravelled. 

" The above narrative is absolutely and strictly true, 
in witness whereof we have set our hands this eleventh 
day of January, 1772. 

" Mary Golding. 

" John Pain. 

" Mary Pain. 

" Eichard Fowler. 

" Sarah Fowler. 

" Mary Martin. 

" The original copy of this narrative, signed as above, 
with the parties' own hands, was put into the hands of 
Mr. Marks, bookseller, in St. Martin's Lane, to satisfy 
persons who choose to inspect the same." 

Such phenomena as this of the Stockwell Ghost are 
by no means uncommon; and I am acquainted with 
many more instances than I can allude to here. One 
occurred very lately in the neighbourhood of London, 
as I learnt from the following newspaper paragraph. 
I subsequently heard that the little girl had been sent 
away, but whether the phenomena then ceased, or 



OF THE GERMANS, ETC. 423 

whether she carried the disturbance with her, I have 
not been able to ascertain, nor does it appear certain 
that she had anything to do with it. 

" A Mischievous and Mysterious Ghost. (From 
a Correspondent.) — The whole of the neighbourhood of 
Black Lion-lane, Bayswater, is ringing with the ex- 
traordinary occurrences that have recently happened in 
the house of a Mr. Williams, in the Moscow-road, and 
which bear a strong resemblance to the celebrated 
Stockwell ghost affair in 1772. The house is inhabited 
by Mr. and Mrs. Williams; a grown-up son and daughter, 
and a little girl between ten and eleven years of age. On 
the first day, the family, who are remarkable for their 
piety, were startled all at once by a mysterious move- 
ment among the things in the sitting-rooms and kitchen, 
and other parts of the house. At one time, without 
any visible agency, one of the jugs came off the hook 
over the dresser, and was broken; then followed another, 
and next clay another. A china tea-pot, with the 
tea just made in it, and placed on the mantel-piece, 
whisked off on the floor, and was smashed. A pewter 
one, which had been substituted immediately after, did 
the same, and when put on the table, was seen to hop 
about as if bewitched, and was actually held down 
while the tea was made for Mr. Williams's breakfast, 
before leaving for his place of business. When for a 
time all had been quiet, off came from its place on the 
wall a picture in a heavy gilt frame, and fell to the 
floor without being broken. All was now amazement 
and terror, for the old people are very superstitious, 
and ascribing it to a supernatural agency, the other 
pictures were removed, and stowed away on the floor. 
But the spirit of locomotion was not to be arrested. 
Jugs and plates continued at intervals to quit their 
posts, and skip off their hooks and shelves into the 
middle of the room, as though they were inspired bv 
the magic flute; and at supper, when the little girl's 



424 THE POLTERGEIST 

mug was filled with beer, the mug slided off the table 
on to the floor. Three times it was replenished and 
replaced, and three times it moved off again. It would 
be tedious to relate the fantastic tricks which have 
been played by household articles of every kind. An 
Egyptian vase jumped off the table suddenly when no 
soul was near, and was smashed to pieces. The tea- 
kettle popped off the fire into the grate as Mr. 
Williams had filled the tea-pot, which fell off the 
chimney-piece. Candlesticks, after a dance on the 
table, new off. and ornaments from the shelves, and 
bonnets and cap-boxes flung about in the oddest 
manner. A looking-glass hopped off a dressing- tabic, 
followed by combs and brushes and several bottles, and 
a great pincushion has been remarkably conspicuous for 
its incessant jigs from one part to another. The little 
girl, who is a Spaniard, and under the care of Mr. and 
Mrs. Williams, is supposed by their friends to be 
the cause of it all, however extraordinary it may seem 
in oi\e of her age; but up to the present time it con- 
tinues a mystery, and the modus operandi is invisible." 
— Morning Post. 

To imagine that these extraordinary effects were pro- 
duced by the voluntary agency of the child, furnishes 
one of those remarkable instances of the credulity of the 
sceptical, to which I have referred. But when we read 
a true statement of the effects involuntarily exhibited 
by Angelique Cottin, we begin to see that it is just 
possible the other strange phenomena may be produced 
by a similar agency. 

The French Academy of Sciences had determined, 
as they had formerly done by Mesmerism, that the 
thing should not be true, and Monsieur Arago was non- 
suited; but although it is extremely possible that either 
the phenomenon had run its course and arrived at a 
natural termination, or that the removal of the girl to 
Paris had extinguished it, there appears no doubt that 
it had previously existed. 

Angelique Cottin was a native of La Perriere, a^d 



OF THE GERMANS, ETC. 425 

fourteen, when on the 15th January, 1846, at eight 
o'clock in the evening, whilst weaving silk gloves at 
an oaken frame, in company with other girls, the 
frame began to jerk and they could not by any efforts 
keep it steady. It seemed as if it were alive, and 
becoming alarmed, they called in the neighbours, who 
would not believe them; but desired them to sit down 
and go on with their work. Being timid, they went 
one by one, and the frame remained still, till Angelique 
approached, when it recommenced its movements, whilst 
she was also attracted by the frame : thinking she was 
bewitched or possessed, her parents took her to the 
Presbytery that the spirit might be exorcised. The 
curate, however, being a sensible man, refused to do it: 
but set himself, on the contrary, to observe the pheno- 
menon; and being perfectly satisfied of the fact, he 
bade them take her to a physician. 

Meanwhile, the intensity of the influence, whatever 
it was, augmented; not only articles made of oak, but 
all sorts of things were acted upon by it -and reacted 
upon her, whilst persons who were near her, even 
without contact, frequently felt electric shocks. The 
effects, which were diminished when she was on a carpet 
or even a waxed cloth, were most remarkable when she 
was on the bare earth. They sometimes entirely ceased 
for two or three days, and then recommenced. Metals 
were not affected, Anything touched by her &pron or 
dress would fly off, although a person held it; and Mon- 
sieur Hebert. whilst seated on a heavy tub or trough, 
was raised up with it. In short, the only place she 
could repose on, was a stone covered with cork; they 
also kept her still by isolating her. When she was 
fatigued the effects diminished. A needle suspended 
horizontally, oscillated rapidly with the motion of her 
arm without contact, or remained fixed, whilst deviating 
from the magnetic direction. Great numbers of en- 
lightened medical and scientific men witnessed these 
phenomena, and investigated them with every precau- 
tion to prevent imposition She was often hurt by the 



426 THE POLTERGEIST 

violent involuntary movements she was thrown into, 
and was evidently afflicted by chorea. 

Unfortunately, her parents, poor and ignorant, in- 
sisted, much against the advice of the doctors, on exhi- 
biting her for money; and, under these circumstances, 
she was brought to Paris; and nothing is more probable, 
than, that after the phenomena had really ceased, the 
girl may have been induced to simulate what had 
originally been genuine; the thing avowedly ceased 
altogether on the evening of the 10th April, and there 
has been no return of it. 

In 1831, a young girl, also aged fourteen, who lived 
as under nursery- maid in a French family, exhibited the 
same phenomena ; and when the case of Angelique 
Cottin was made public, her master published hers. 
He says that things of such an extraordinary nature 
occurred as he dare not repeat, since none but an eye- 
witness could believe them. The thing lasted for three 
years, and there was ample time for observation. 

In the year 1686, a man at Brussels, called Breek- 
mans was similarly affected. A commission was ap- 
pointed by the magistrates to investigate his condition: 
and, being pronounced a sorcerer, he would have been 
burnt, had he not luckily made his escape. 

Many somnambulic persons are capable of giving an 
electric shock; and I have met with one person, not 
somnambulic, who informs me that he has frequently 
been able to do it by an effort of the will. 

Dr. Ennemoser relates the case of a Mademoiselle 
Emmerich, sister to the professor of theology at Stras- 
burg, who also possessed this power. This young lady, 
who appears to have been a person of very rare merit 
and endowments, was afflicted with a long and singular 
malady, originating in a fright, in the course of which 
she exhibited many very curious phenomena, having 
fallen into a state of natural somnambulism, accom- 
panied by a high degree of lucidity. Her body became so 
surcharged with electricity, that it was necessary to her 



OF THE GERMANS, ETC. 427 

relief to discharge it; and slie sometimes imparted a 
complete battery of shocks to her brother and her phy- 
sician, or whoever was near, and that, frequently, when 
they did not touch her. Professor Emmerich mentions 
also, that she sent him a smart shock, one day, when he 
was several rooms off. He started up, and rushed into 
her chamber, where she was in bed, and as soon as she 
saw him she said, laughing, " Ah, you felt it, did you f 
Mademoiselle Emmerich's illness terminated in death. 

Cotugno, a surgeon, relates that having touched with 
his scalpel the intercostal nerve of a mouse that had 
bitten his leg, he received an electric shock; and where 
the torpedo abounds, the fishermen) in pouring water 
over the fish they have caught, for the purpose of 
washing them, know if one is amongst them by the 
shock they sustain. 

A very extraordinary circumstance, which we may 
possibly attribute to some such influence as the above, 
occurred at Rambouillet, in November, 1846. The 
particulars are furnished by a gentleman residing on 
the spot at the time, and were published by the Baron 
Dupotet, who however attempts no explanation of the 
mystery. 

One morning, some travelling merchants, or pedlars^ 
came to the door of a farm house, belonging to a man 
named Bottel, and asked for some bread, which the maid 
servant gave them and they went away. Subsequently 
one of the party returned to ask for more, and was re- 
fused. The man I believe expressed some resentment, 
and uttered vague threats, but she would not give him 
anything, and he departed. That night at sujyper the 
plates began to dance and to roll off the table, without 
any visible cause, and several other unaccountable phe- 
nomena occurred ; and the girl going to the door and 
chancing to place herself just where the pedlar had 
stood, she was seized with convulsions and an extraor- 
dinary rotatory motion. The carter who was standing 
by, laughed at her, and out of bravado, placed him sell 

E E 



428 THE POLTERGEIST 

on the same spot, when he felt almost suffocated, and 
was so unable to command his movements, that he was 
overturned into a large pool that was in front of the 
house. 

Upon this, they rushed to the cure of the parish for 
assistance, but he had scarcely said a prayer or two, 
before he was attacked in the same manner, though in 
his own house ; and his f arniture beginning to oscillate 
and crack as if it were bewitched, the poor people were 
frightened out of their wits. 

By and by the phenomena intermitted, and they 
hoped all was over ; but presently it began again ; and 
this occurred more than once before it subsided wholly. 

On the 8th December, 1836, at Stuttgard, Carl 
Fischer, a baker's boy, aged seventeen, of steady habits 
and good character, was fixed with a basket on his 
shoulders in some unaccountable way in front of his 
master's house. He foresaw the thing was to happen 
when he went out very early, with his bread in the 
morning ; earnestly wished that the clay was over, and 
told his companion that if he could only cross the 
threshold, on his return, he should escape it. It was 
about six when he did return ; and his master hearing a 
fearful noise, which he could not describe, " as if pro- 
ceeding from a multitude of beings," looked out of the 
window, where he saw Carl violently struggling and fight- 
ing with his apron, though his feet were immovably 
fixed to one {--pot. A hissing sound proceeded from his 
mouth and nose, and a voice which was neither his nor 
that of any person present, was heard to cry, " Stand 
fast, Carl !" The master says, that he could not have 
believed such a thing; and he was so alarmed that he 
did not venture into the street, where numerous persons 
were assembled. The boy said he must remain there 
till eleven o'clock : and the police kept guard over him 
till that time, as the physician said he must not be in- 
terfered with, and the people sought to push him from 
the spot. When the time had expired, he was carried 



OF THE GERMANS, ETC. 429 

to the hospital, where he seemed exceedingly ex- 
hausted, and fell into a profound sleep. 

I meet with numerous extraordinary records of a 
preternatural ringing of all the bells in a house ; some- 
times occurring periodically for a considerable time ; and 
continuing after precautions have been taken which 
precluded the possibility of trick or deception, the wire* 
being cut, and vigilant eyes watching them; and jei 
they rung on by day or night, just the same. 

It is certainly very difficult to conceive, but at the 
same time it is not impossible, that such strange pheno- 
mena as that of the Stockwell Ghost and many similar 
ones, may be the manifestations of some extraordi- 
nary electrical influence ; but there are other cases of 
poltergeist, which it is impossible to attribute to the 
same cause, since they are accompanied by evident 
manifestations of will and intelligence. Such was the 
instance related in Southey's Life of Wesley, which oc- 
cmred in the year 1716, beginning with a groaning, and 
subsequently proceeding to all manner of noises, lift- 
ing of latches, clattering of windows, knockings of a most 
mysterious kind, &c. &c. The family were not generally 
frightened, but the young children, when asleep, showed 
symptoms of great terror. This annoyance lasted, I 
think, two or three months, and then ceased. As in 
most of these cases, the dog was extremely frightened, 
and hid lihnself when the visitations commenced. 

In the year 1838, a circumstance of the same kind 
occurred in Paris, in the Rue St. Honored and not very 
long ago, there was one in Caithness, in which most 
unaccountable circumstances transpired. Amongst thf 
rest, stones were flung, which never hit people, but fei} 
at their feet, in rooms perfectly closed on all sides. A 
gentleman who witnessed these extraordinary phe- 
nomena, related the whole story to an advocate of my 
acquaintance ; who assured me, that however impossible 
he found it to credit such things, he should certainly 
j place entire reliance on that gentleman's word in any 
other case. 



130 THE POLTERGEIST 

Then there is the famous story of the Drummer of 
Tedworth ;* and the persecution of Professor Schuppart, 
at Giessen, in Upper Hesse, which continued with oc- 
casional intermission for six years. This affair began 
with a violent knocking at the door one night; next 
•day stones were sent whizzing through closed rooms in 
all directions ; so that although no one was struck, the 
windows were all broken; and no sooner were new 
panes put in, than they were broken again. He was 
persecuted with slaps on the face by day and by night, 
so that he could get no rest; and when two persons 
were appointed by the authorities to sit by his bed to 
watch liim, they got the slaps also. When he was 
reading at his desk, his lamp would suddenly rise up 
and remove to the other end of the room — not as if 
thrown, but evidently carried : his books were torn to 
pieces and flung at his feet, and when he was lecturing, 
this mischievous sprite would tear out the leaf he was 
reading ; and it is very remarkable that the only thing 
that seemed available, as a protection, was a drawn 
rword brandished over his head by himself, or others, 
which was one of the singularities attending the case of 
the Drummer of Tedworth. Schuppart narrated all 
these circumstances in his public lectures, and nobody 
ever disputed the facts. 

A remarkable case of this sort occurred in the year 
1670, at Keppock, near Glasgow; there also stones 
were thrown which hit nobody ; but the annoyance 
only continued eight days; and there are several more 
to be found recorded in works of that period. The 
disturbance that happened in the house of Gilbert 
Cambell, at Glenluce, excited considerable notice. 

* There was also a remarkable case of this sort at Mr. Chave's. 
in Devonshire, in the year 1810, where affidavits were made before 
the magistrates attesting the facts, and large rewards offered for dis- 
covery ; but in vain. The phenomena continued several months, 
and the spiritual agent was frequently seen in the form of some 
itr&nge animal 



OP THE GERMANS, ETC. 431 

Here, as elsewhere, stones were thrown; but, as in 
most similar instances I meet with, no human being 
was damaged; the licence of these spirits or goblins, 
or wnatever they be, seeming generally to extend no 
further than worrying and tormenting their victims. 
In this case, however, the spirit spoke to them, though 
he was never seen. The annoyance commenced in 
November of the year 1654, I think, and continued 
till April, when there was some intermission till July, 
when it recommenced. The loss of the family from the 
things destroyed was ruining ; for their household 
goods and chattels were rendered useless, their food 
was polluted and spoiled, and their very clothes cut to 
pieces whilst on their backs by invisible hands ; and it 
was in vain that all the ministers about the country 
assembled to exorcise this troublesome spirit, for who- 
ever was there, the thing continued exactly the same. 

At length, poor Oambell applied to the Synod of 
Presbyters lor advice; a meeting was convened in 
October, 1655, and a solemn day of humiliation was 
imposed through the whole bounds of the Presbytery,. 
for the sake of the afflicted family. Whether it was 
owing to this or not, there ensued an alleviation from 
that time to April; and from April till August they 
were entirely free, and hoped all was over; but then 
it began again worse than ever, and they were dread- 
fully tormented through the autumn; after which the 
<listurbance ceased, and although the family lived in 
the house many years afterwards, nothing of the sort 
ever happened again. 

There was another famous case, which occurred at a 
place called Ring-Croft, in Kirkcudbright, in the year 
1695. The afflicted family bore the name of Mackie. 
In this instance the stones did sometimes hit them, 
and they were beaten as if by staves ; they, as well as 
strangers who came to the house, were lifted off the 
ground by their clothes, their bed coverings were taken 
off their beds; tilings were visibly carried about the 



132 THE POLTERGEIST 

house by invisible hands; several people were hurt, 
even to the effusion of blood, by stones and blows; 
there were fire-balls seen about the house, which was 
several times actually ignited: people, both of the family 
and others, felt themselves grasped as if by a hand j 
then there was groaning, crying, whistling, and a voice 
that frequently spoke to them; crowds of people went 
to the house, but the thing continued just the same 
whether there were many or few, and sometimes the 
whole building shook as if it were coming down. 

A day of humiliation was appointed in this case also, 
but without the least effect. The disturbance com- 
menced in February, and ended on the 1st of May. 
Numberless people witnessed the phenomena, and the 
iccount of it is attested by fourteen ministers and gen- 
*lemen. 

The same sort of thing occurred in the year 16-59, 
in a place inhabited by an Evangelical bishop, called 
Schlotterbeck. It began in the same manner by throw 
ing of stones and other things, many of which came 
through the roof; insomuch that they believed at first 
that some animal was concealed there. However, 
nothing could be found, and the invisible guest soon 
proceeded to other annoyances similar to those above- 
mentioned; and though they could not see him, his 
footsteps were for ever heard about the house. At 
length, wearied out, the bishop applied to the Govern- 
ment for aid, and they sent him a company of soldiers 
to guard the house by day and night, out of which he 
and his family retired. But the goblin cared no more 
for the soldiers than it had done for the city watch; 
the thing continued without intermission, whoever was 
there, till it ceased of its own accord. There was a hou^e 
at Aix-la-Chapelle that was for several years quite un- 
inhabitable from a similar cause. 

I could mention many other cases, and, as I have 
said before, they occur in all countries; but these will 
suffice as specimens of the class. It is in vain for people 



OF THE GERMANS, ETC. 433 

who were not on the spot to laugh, and assert that 
these were the mischievous tricks of servants, or others, 
when those who were there, and who had such a deep 
interest in unravelling the mystery, and such abun- 
dance of time and opportunity for doing it, could find 
no solution whatever. In many of the above cases 
the cattle were unloosed, the horses were turned out of 
their stables, and uniformly all the animals in the way 
exhibited gre t «c terror, sweating and tremblmg whilst 
the visitation continued. 

Since we cannot but believe that man forms but ona 
class in an immense range of existences, do not these 
strange occurrences suggest the idea, that occasionally 
some individual out of this gamut of beings comes into 
rapport with us, or crosses our path like a comet, and 
that, whilst certain conditions last, it can hover about 
us, and play these puckish, mischievous tricks, till the 
charm is broken, and then it re-enters its own sphere, 
and we are cognizant of it no more ! 

But one of the most extraordinary examples of this 
kind of annoyance, is that which occurred in the year 
1806, in the castle of Prince Hohenlohe, in Silesia. 
The account is given at length by Councillor Hahn, of 
Ingelfingen, who witnessed the circumstances; and, in 
consequence of the various remarks that have been since 
made on the subject, in different publications, he has 
repeatedly reasserted the facts in letters which have 
been printed and laid before the public. I cannot, 
therefore, see what right we have to disbelieve a man 
of honour and character, as he is said to be, merely 
because the circumstances he narrates are unaccount- 
able, more especially as the story, strange as it is, by 
no means stands alone in the annals of demonology. 
The following details were written down at the time 
the events occurred, and they were communicated by 
Councillor Hahn to Dr. Kerner in the year 1828. 

" After the campaign of the Prussians against tho 
French in the year 1806, the reigning Prince of 



434 THE POLTERGEIST 

Holienlohe gave orders to Councillor Hahn, who was 
in his service, to proceed to Slawensick, and there to 
wait his return. His Serene Highness advanced from 
Leignitz towards his principality, and Hahn also com- 
menced his journey towards Upper Silesia on the 19th 
November. At the same period, Charles Kern, of 
Kuntzlau, who had fallen into the hands of the French, 
being released on parole, and arriving at Leignitz, in an 
infirm condition, he was allowed to spend some time 
with Hahn, whilst awaiting his exchange. 

" Hahn and Kern had been friends in their youth, 
and their destinies having brought them both at this 
^ime into the Prussian States, they were lodged to- 
gether in the same apartment of the castle, which was 
one on the first floor, forming an angle at the back of 
the building, one side looking towards the north, and 
the other to the east. On the right of the door of 
this room was a glass door, which led into a chamber 
divided from those which followed by a wainscot par- 
tition. The door in this wainscot, which commu- 
nicated to those adjoining rooms, was entirely closed 
up, because in them all sorts of household utensils were 
kept. Neither in this chamber, nor in the sitting- 
room which preceded it, was there any opening what- 
ever which could furnish the means of communication 
from without; nor was there anybody in the castle 
besides the two friends, except the Prince's two coach- 
men and Hahn's servant. The whole party were fear- 
less people; and as for Hahn and Kern they believed 
?n nothing less than ghosts or witches, noi nad any 
/>revious experience induced them to turn their thoughts 
in that direction. Hahn, during his collegiate life, 
had been much given to philosophy — liad listened to 
Fichte, and earnestly studied the writings of Kant. 
The result of his reflections was a pure materialism; 
and he looked upon created man, not as an aim, but 
merely as a means to a yet undeveloped end. These 
opinions he has since changed, like many others, who 



OF THE GERMANS, ETC. 435 

itnnfc very differently in their fortieth year to what 
they did in their twentieth. The particulars here given 
are necessary in order to obtain credence for the fol- 
lowing extraordinary narrative, and to establish the 
fact that the phenomena were not merely accepted by 
ignorant superstition, but coolly and courageously in- 
vestigated by enlightened minds. During the first 
days of their residence in the castle, the two friends, 
living together in solitude, amused their long evenings 
by the works of Schiller, of whom they were both 
great admirers; and Hahn usually read aloud. Three 
days had thus passed quietly away, when, as they were 
sitting at the table, which stood in the middle of the 
room, about nine o'clock in the evening, their reading 
was interrupted by a small shower of lime, which fell 
around them. They looked at the ceiling, concluding 
it must have come thence, but could perceive no abraded 
parts, and whilst they were yet seeking to ascertain 
whence the lime had proceeded, there suddenly fell 
several larger pieces, which were quite cold, and ap- 
peared as if they had belonged to the external wall. 
At length, concluding the lime must have fallen" from 
some part of the wall, and giving up further inquiry, 
they went to bed, and slept quietly till the morning, 
when, on awaking, they were somewhat surprised at 
the quantity which strewed the floor, more especially 
as they could still discover no part of the walls ot 
ceiling from which it could have fallen. But they 
thought no more of the matter till evening, when, 
instead of the lime falling as before, it was thrown, 
and several pieces struck Hahn. At the same time, they 
heard heavy blows, sometimes below, and sometimes 
over their heads, like the sound of distant guns; still, 
attributing these sounds to natural causes, they went 
to bed as usual, but the uproar prevented their sleep- 
ing, and each accused the other of occasioning it by 
kicking with his feet against the footboard of his bed, 
till, finding that the noise continued when they both 



436 THE POLTERGEIST 

got out and stood together in the middle of the room, 
they were satisfied that this was not the case. On the 
following evening, a third noise was added, which 
resembled the faint and distant beating of a drum. 
Upon this, they requested the governess of the castle 
to send them the key of the apartments above and 
below, which was brought them by her son; and, whilst 
he and Kern went to make their investigations, Hahn 
remained in their own room. Above, they found an 
empty room; below, a kitchen. They knocked, but the 
noise they made was very different to that which H$ia 
continued all the while to hear around him. When 
they returned, Hahn said jestingly, ' The place is 
haunted !' On this night, when they went to bed with • 
a light burning, they heard what seemed like a person 
walking about the room with slippers on, and a stick, 
with which he struck the floor as he moved step by 
step. Hahn continued to jest, and Kern to laugh, at 
the oddness of these circumstances for some time, 
when they both as usual fell asleep, neither in the 
slightest degree disturbed by these events, nor inclined 
to attribute them to any supernatural cause. But on 
the following evening the affair became more inex- 
plicable; various articles in the room were thrown 
about; knives, forks, brushes, caps, slippers, padlocks, 
funnel, snuffers, soap — everything in short that wa# 
moveable; whilst lights darted from corner to corner, 
and everything was in confusion; at the same time the 
lime fell, and the blows continued. Upon this, the two 
friends called up the servants, Knittel, the castle watch, 
and whoever else was at hand, to be witnesses of these 
mysterious operations. In the morning all was quiet, 
and generally continued so till about an hour after 
midnight. One evening, Kern going into the above- 
mentioned chamber to fetch something, and hearing 
such an uproar that it almost drove him backwards to 
the door, Hahn caught up the light, and both rushed 
into the room, where they found a large piece of wood 



OF T1TE GERMANS, ETC. 437 

lying close to the wainscot. But supposing this to be 
the cause of the noise, who had set it in motion'? For 
Kern was sure the door was shut, even whilst the noise 
was making ; neither had there been any wood in the 
room. Frequently, before their eyes, the knives and 
snuffers rose from the table, and fell, after some 
minutes, to the ground; and Hahn's large shears were 
once lifted in this manner, between him and one ot 
the Prince's cooks, and, falling to the ground, stuck 
into the floor. As some nights, however, passed quite 
quietly, Hahn was determined not to leave the rooms; 
but when, for three weeks, the disturbance was so con- 
stant that they could get no rest, they resolved on 
removing their beds into the large room above, in 
hopes of once more enjoying a little quiet sleep. Their 
hopes were vain — the thumping continued as before ; 
and not only so, but articles flew about the room, which 
they were quite sure they had left below. i They may 
fling as they will,' cried Hahn, ( sleep I must;' whilst 
Kern began to undress, pondering on these matters as 
he walked up and down the room. Suddenly Hahn 
saw him stand, as if transfixed, before the looking glass, 
on which he had accidentally cast his eyes. He had 
so stood for some minutes, when he was seized with a 
violent trembling, and turned from the mirror with 
his face as white as death. Hahn, fancying the cold 
of the uninhabited room had seized him, hastened to 
throw a cloak over him; when Kern, who was naturally 
very courageous, recovered himself, and related, though 
with trembling lips, that, as he had accidentally looked 
in the glass, he had seen a white female figure looking 
out of it; she was in front of his own image, which he 
distinctly saw behind her. At first he could not believe 
his eyes; he thought it must be fancy, and for that 
reason he had stood so long ; but when he saw that the 
eyes of the figure moved, and looked into his, a shudder 
had seized him, and he had turned away. Hahn upon 
this advanced with firm steps to the front of the 



438 THE POLTERGEIST 

mirror, and called upon the apparition to show itself 
to him; but he saw nothing, although he remained a 
quarter of an hour before the glass, and frequently 
repeated his exhortation. Kern then further related 
that the features of the apparition were very old, but 
not gloomy or morose; the exj^ression indeed was rather 
that of indifference; but the face was very pale, and 
the head was wrapped in a cloth which left only the 
features visible. 

" By this time it was four o'clock in the morning — 
sleep was banished from their eyes, — and they resolved 
to return to the lower room, and have their beds 
brought back again; but the people who were sent to 
fetch them returned, declaring they could not open the 
door, although it did not appear to be fastened. They 
were sent back again; but a second and a third time 
they returned with the same answer. Then Halm went 
himself, and opened it with the greatest ease. The 
four servants, however, solemnly declared, that all their 
united strengths could make no impression on it. 

" In this way a month had elapsed : the strange events 
at the castle had got spread abroad; and amongst others 
who desired to convince themselves of the fact were two 
Bavarian officers of dragoons, namely, Captain Cornet 
and Lieutenant Magerle, of the regiment of Minuci, 
Magerle offering to remain in the room alone, the others 
left him, but scarcely had they passed into the next 
apartment, when they heard Magerle storming like a 
man in a passion, and cutting away at the tables and 
chairs with his sabre, whereupon the Captain thought 
it advisable to return, in order to rescue the furniture 
from his rage. They found the door shut, but he 
opened it on their summons, and related, in great ex- 
citement, that as soon as they had quitted the room, some 
cursed thing had begun to fling lime, and other matters, 
at him; and, having examined every part of the room 
without being able to discover the agent of the mischief, 
he had fallen into a rage and cut madly about him. 



OF THE GERMANS, ETC. 439 

u The party now passed the rest of the evening 
together in the room, and the two Bavarians closely 
matched Halm and Kern, in order to satisfy themselves 
that the mystery was no trick of theirs. All at once, 
as they were quietly sitting at the table, the snuffers 
rose into the air, and fell again to the ground behind 
Magerle; and a leaden ball flew at Hahn, and hit him 
tipon the breast, and presently afterwards they heard a 
noise at the glass door, as if somebody had struck his 
fist through it, together with a sound of falling glass. 
On investigation they found the door entire, but a 
broken drinking-glass on the floor. By this time the 
Bavarians were convinced, and they retired from the 
room to seek repose in one more peaceful. 

" Amongst other strange circumstances, the follow- 
ing, which occurred to Hahn, is remarkable. One 
evening, about eight o'clock, being about to shave him- 
self the implements for the purpose, which were lying 
on a pyramidal stand in a corner of the room, flew at 
him, one after the other — the soap-box, the razor, the 
brush and the soap- — and fell at his feet, although he 
was standing several paces from, the pyramid. He and 
Kern, who was sitting at the table, laughed, for they 
were now so accustomed to these events that they only 
made them subjects of diversion. In the mean time, 
Hahn poured some water, which had been standing on 
the stove, in a basin, observing as he dipped his finger 
into it, that it was of a nice heat for shaving. He 
seated himself before the table, and strapped his razor; 
but when he attempted to prepare the lather, the water 
had clean vanished out of the basin. Another time, 
Halm was awakened by goblins throwing at him a 
squeezed-up piece of sheet-lead, in which tobacco had 
been wrapped, and when he stooped to pick it up, the 
self-same piece was flung at him again. When this was 
repeated a third time, Hahn flung a heavy stick at his 
invisible assailant. 

u Dorfel, the book-keeper, was frequently a witness 



440 THE POLTERGEIST 

to these strange events. He once laid his cap on the 
table by the stove, when, being about to depart, he 
sought for it, it had vanished. Four or five times he 
examined the table in vain; presently afterwards he saw 
it lying exactly where he had placed it when he came 
in. On the same table, Knittel having once placed his 
cap, and drawn himself a seat, suddenly — although 
there was nobody near the table — he saw it flying 
through the room to his feet, where it fell. 

" Halm now determined to find out the secret him- 
self; and for this purpose seated himself, with two 
lights before him, in a position where he could see the 
whole of the room, and all the windows and doors it 
contained; but the same things occurred even when 
Kern was out, the servants in the stables, and nobody 
in the castle but himself; and the snuffers were as usual 
flung about, although the closest observation could not 
detect by whom. 

u The forest- master, Radzensky, spent a night in the 
room; but although the two friends slept, he could get 
no rest. He was bombarded without intermission; and 
in the morning, his bed was found fall of all manner of 
household articles. 

" One evening, in spite of all the drumming and 
flinging, Hahn was determined to sleep; but a heavy 
blow on the wall, close to his bed soon waked him from 
his slumbers. A second time he went to sleep, and was 
awaked by a sensation, as if some person had dipped 
his finger in water, and was sprinkling his face with it. 
He pretended to sleep again, whilst he watched Kern 
and Knittel, who were sitting at the table, the sensation 
of sprinkling returned; but he could find no water on 
his face. 

" About this time, Hahn had occasion to make a 
journey as far as Breslau; and when he returned he 
heard the strangest storv of all. In order not to be 
alone in this mysterious chamber, Kern had engaged 
Hahn's servant, a man of about forty years of age, and 



OF THE GERMANS. ETC. 441 

of entire singleness of character, to stay with him. 
One night as Kern lay in his bed, and this man was 
standing near the glass door in conversation witr Lim, 
to his utter amazement he beheld a jug of beej, which 
stood on a table, in a room, at some distance from 
him, slowly lifted to a height of about three feet, and 
the contents poured into a glass, that was standing there 
also, until the latter was half full. The jug was then 
gently replaced, and the glass lifted and emptied, as by 
some one drinking: whilst John, the servant, exclaimed, 
in terrified surprise, 'Lord Jesus! it swallows!' The 
glass was quietly replaced, and not a drop of beer was 
to be found on the floor. Hahn was about to require 
an oath of John, in confirmation of this fact; but 
forbore, seeing how ready the man was to take one. and 
satisfied of the truth of the relation. 

" One night Knetsch, an inspector of the works, 
passed the night with the two friends, and in spite of the 
unintermitting flinging they all three went to bed. 
There were lights in the room, and presently all three 
saw two napkins, in the middle of the room, rise slowly 
up to the ceiling, and having there spread themselves 
out flutter down again. The china bowl of a pipe, 
belonging to Kern, flew about and was broken. Knives 
and forks were flung; and at last one of the latter fell 
on Halm's head, though fortunately with the handle 
downwards; and having now endured this annoyance 
for two months, it was unanimously resolved to abandon 
this mysterious chamber for this night at all events, 
John and Kern took up one of the beds and carried it 
into the opposite room, but they were no sooner gone 
than a pitcher for holding chalybeate water flew to the 
feet of the two who remained behind, although no door 
was open, and a brass candlestick was flung to the 
ground. In the opposite room the night passed quietly, 
although some sounds still issued from the forsaken 
chamber. After this, there was a cessation to these 



442 THE POLTEKGEIST 

strange proceedings, and nothing more remarkable 
occurred, with the exception of the following circum- 
stance. Some weeks after the above mentioned removal, 
as Halm was returning home, and crossing the bridge that 
leads to the castle gate, he heard the foot of a dog 
behind him. He looked round, and called repeatedly 
on the name of a greyhound that was much attached 
to him, thinking it might be she, but although he 
still heard the foot, even when he ascended the stairs, 
as he could see nothing, he concluded it was an illusion. 
Scarcely, however, had he set foot within the room, 
than Kern advanced and took the door out of his hand, 
at the same time calling the dog by name; adding, how- 
ever, immediately that he thought he had seen the 
dog, but that he had no sooner called her than she dis- 
appeared. Hahn then inquired if he had really seen the 
dog. i Certainly I did,' replied Kern; c she was close behind 
you — half within the door — and that was the reason 
I took it out of your hand, lest, not observing her, 
you should have shut it suddenly and crushed her. It 
was a white dog, and I took it for Flora.' Search 
was immediately made for the dog, but she was found 
locked up in the stable, and had not been out of it the 
whole day. It is certainly remarkable — even supposing 
Hahn to have been deceived with respect to the foot- 
steps — that Kern should have seen a white dog behind 
him before he had heard a word on the subject from 
his friend, especially as there was no such animal in 
the neighbourhood; besides, it was not yet dark, and 
Kern was very sharp-sighted. 

" Hahn remained in the castle for half-a-year after 
this, without experiencing anything extraordinary; and 
even persons who had possession of these mysterious 
chambers were not subjected to any annoyance. 

" The riddle, however, in spite of all the perquisi- 
tions and investigations that were set on foot remained 
unsolved — no explanation of these strange events could 



OF THE GERMANS, ETC. 443 

\>e found; and even supposing any motive could exist, 
there was nobody in the neighbourhood clever enough 
to have carried on such a system of persecution, winch 
lasted so long that the inhabitants of the chamber be- 
came almost indifferent to it. 

u In conclusion, it is only necessary to add that Coun- 
cillor Hahn wrote down this account for his own satis- 
faction, with the strictest regard to truth. His words 
are : — 

H 1 1 have described these events exactly as I heard 
and saw them ; from beginning to end I observed them 
with the most entire self-possession. I had no fear, 
nor the slightest tendency to it ; yet the whole thing 
remains to me perfectly inexplicable. Written the 19th 
November. 1808. 

" { Augustus Hahn, Councillor. 

" Doubtless many natural explanations of these phe- 
nomena will be suggested, by those who consider them- 
selves above the weakness of crediting stories of this 
description. Some say that Kern was a dexterous 
juggler, who contrived to throw dust in the eyes of his 
friend Hahn ; whilst others affirm that both Hahn and 
Kern were intoxicated every evening. I did not fail 
to communicate these objections to Hahn, and heve 
insert his answer. 

" 6 After the events alluded to, I resided with Kern 
for a quarter of a year in another part of the Castle of 
Slawensick (which has been since struck by lightning 
and burnt), without finding a solution of the mystery, 
or experiencing a repetition of the annoyance, which 
discontinued from the moment we quitted those parti- 
cular apartments. Those persons must suppose me very 
weak, who can imagine it possible, that with only one 
companion, I could have been the subject of his sport 
. for two months without detecting him. As for Kern 
himself, he was, from the first, very anxious to leave 

r f 



444 • THE POLTERGEIST 

the rooms ; but as I was unwilling to resign the hope 
of discovering some natural cause for these phenomena, 
I persisted in remaining; and the thing that at last 
induced me to yield to his wishes was his vexation at the 
loss of his china pipe, which had been thrown against 
the wall and broken. Besides, jugglery requires a 
juggler, and I was frequently quite alone when these 
things occurred. It is equally absurd to accuse lis 
of intoxication. The wine there was too dear for us to 
<k\vk at all, and we confined ourselves wholly to weak 
beer. All the circumstances that happened are not set 
dcwxi in the narration; but my recollection of the whole 
is* '-is vivid .as if it had occurred yesterday. We had 
a 1 ,^ xaany witnesses, some of whom have been mentioned. 
Councillor Klenk also visited me at a later period; with 
every desire to investigate the mystery; and when one 
morning he had mounted on a table for the purpose of 
doing so, and was knocking at the ceiling with a stick, 
a powder horn fell upon him, which he had just before 
left on the table in another room. At that time Kern 
had been for some time absent. I neglected no possible 
means that could have led to a discovery of the secret ; 
and at least as many people have blamed me, for my 
unwillingness to believe in a supernatural cause, as the 
reverse. Fear is not my failing, as all who are 
acquainted with me know; and to avoid the possibility 
of error, I frequently asked others what they saw when 
I was myself present ; and their answers always coin- 
cided with what I saw myself. From 1809 till 1811 I 
lived in Jacobswald, very near the Castle where the 
Prince himself was residing. I am aware that some 
singular circumstances occurred whilst he was there; 
but as I did not witness them myself, I cannot sj)eak 
of them more particularly. 

u i I am still as unable as ever to account for those 
events, and I am content to submit to the hasty re- 
marks of the world, knowing that I have only related 



OF THE GERMANS, ETC. 445 

iiie truth; iind what many persons now alive witnessed, 
as well as myself. 

" * Councillor Hahn. 
" < Ingelfingen, 24th August, 1828/" " ' 

The only key to this mystery ever discovered was, 
that after the destruction of the castle by lightning, 
when the ruins were removed, there was found the 
skeleton of a man without a coffin. His skull had 
been split, and a sword lay by his side. 

Now, I am very well aware how absurd and im- 
possible these events will appear to many people, and 
that they will have recourse to any explanation rather 
than admit them for facts. Yet, so late as the year 
1835, a suit was brought before the Sheriff of Edin- 
burgh, in which Captain Molesworth was defendant, 
and the landlord of the house he inhabited (which was 
at Trinity, about a couple of miles from Edinburgh) 
was plaintiff, founded upon circumstances not so varied, 
certainly, but quite as inexplicable. The suit lasted 
two years, and I have been favoured with the parti- 
culars of the case by Mr. M. L., the advocate employed 
by the plaintiff, who spent many hours in examining 
the numerous witnesses, several of whom were officers of 
the army, and gentlemen of undoubted honour and 
capacity for observation. 

Captain Molesworth took the house of a Mr. Webster, 
who resided in the adjoining one, in May or June, 
1835 j and when he had been in it about two months, 
he began to complain of sundry extraordinary noises, 
which, finding it impossible to account for, he took it 
into his head, strangely enough, were mads by Mr. 
Webster. The latter naturally represented that it was 
not probable he should desire to damage the reputation 
of his own house, or drive his tenant out of it, and 
retorted the accusation. Still, as these noises and 

* Translated from the original German. — C. C. 



446 THE POLTERGEIST 

Jmockings continued, Captain M., not only lifted the 
boards in the room most infected, but actually made 
holes in the wall which divided his residence from Mr. 
W.'s, for the purpose of detecting the delinquent — of 
course without success. Do what they would, the 
thing went on just the same; footsteps of invisible 
feet, knockings, and scratchings, and rustlings, first on 
one side, and then on the other, were heard daily and 
nightly. Sometimes this unseen agent seemed to be 
knocking to a certain tune, and if a question were 
addressed to it which could be answered numerically, 
as, " How many people there are in this room?" for ex- 
ample, it would answer by so many knocks. The beds, 
too, were occasionally heaved up, as if somebody were 
underneath, and where the knockings were, the wall 
trembled visibly, but, search as they would, no one 
could be found. Captain Molesworth had had two 
daughters, one of whom, named Matilda, had lately 
died; the other, a girl between twelve and thirteen, 
called Jane, was sickly, and generally kept her bed; 
and, as it was observed that, wherever she was, these 
noises most frequently prevailed, Mr. Webster, who 
did not like the mala fama that was attaching itself 
to his house, declared that she made them, whilst the 
people in the neighbourhood believed that it was the 
ghost of Matilda, warning her sister that she was soon 
to follow. Sheriff's officers, masons, justices of peace, 
and the officers of the regiment quartered at Leitb, who 
were friends of Captain M., all came to his aid. in 
hopes of detecting or frightening away his tormentor, 
but in vain. Sometimes it was said to be a trick 0/ 
somebody outside the house, and then they formed a 
cordon round it ; and next, as the poor sick girl was 
suspected; they tied her up in a bag, but it was all to 
no purpose. 

At length, ill and wearied out by the annoyances and 
the anxieties attending the affair, Captain M. quitted 
(he house, and Mr. W. brought an action against him 



OF THE GERMANS, ETC. 447 

i 
for the damages committed, by lifting the boards, 
breaking the walls, and firing at the wainscot, as well 
as for the injury done to his house by saying it was 
haunted, which prevented other tenants taking it. 

The poor young lady died, hastened out of the world, 
it is said, by the severe measures used whilst she was 
under suspicion; and the persons that have since in- 
habited the house have experienced no repetition of the 
annoyance. 

The manner in which these strange persecutions 
attach themselves to certain persons and places, seems 
somewhat analogous to another class of cases, which 
bear a great similarity to what was formerly called 
possession; and I must here observe, that many German 
physicians maintain, that to this day instances of 
genuine possession occur, and there are several works 
published in their language on the subject; and for this 
malady they consider magnetism the only remedy, all 
others being worse than useless. Indeed, they look 
upon possession itself as a clemono-magnetic state, in 
which the patient is in rapport with mischievous 01 
evil spirits; as in the Agatho (or good) magnetic state, 
which is the opposite pole, he is in rapport with good 
ones; and they particularly warn their readers against 
confounding this infliction with cases of epilepsy or 
mania. They assert, that although instances are com- 
paratively rare, both sexes and all ages are equally 
subject to this misfortune; and that it is quite an erroi 
to suppose, either, that it has ceased since the Resur- 
rection of Christ, or that the expression used in thp 
Scriptures " possessed by a devil," meant merely insanilv 
or convulsions. This disease, which is not contagious, 
was well known to the Greeks; and in later times 
Hofman has recorded several well established instances. 
Amongst the distinguishing symptoms, they reckon the 
patient's speaking in a voice that is not his own, 
frightful convulsions and motions of the body, which 
i arise suddenly, without any previous indisposition — ■ 



448 THE POLTERGEIST 

blasphemous and obscene talk, a knowledge of what is 
secret, and of the future — a vomiting of extraordinary 
things, such as hair, stones, pins, needles, &c, &c. T 
need scarcely observe that this opinion is not universal, 
in Germany; still it obtains amongst many who have 
had considerable opportunities for observation. 

Dr. Bardili had a case in the year 1830. which ho 
considered decidedly to be one of possession. The 
patient was a peasant woman, aged thirty-four, who 
never had any sickness whatever; and the whole of 
whose bodily functions continued perfectly regular 
whilst she exhibited the following strange phenomena. 
I must observe that she was happily married, had three 
children, was not a fanatic, and bore an excellent cha- 
racter for regularity and industry, when, without any 
warning or perceptible cause, she was seized with the 
most extraordinary convulsions, whilst a strange voice 
proceeded from her, which assumed to be that of an 
unblessed spirit, who had formerly inhabited a, human 
form. Whilst these fits were on her, she entirely lost 
her own individuality, and became this person; on re- 
turning to herself, her understanding and character 
were as entire as before. The blasphemy and cursing, 
and barking and screeching, were dreadful. She was 
wounded and injured severely by the violent falls and 
blows she gave herself; and when she had an intermis- 
sion, she could do nothing but weep over what they 
told her had passed, and the state in which she saw 
herself. She was moreover reduced to a skeleton; for 
when she wanted to eat, the spoon was turned round in 
her hand, and she often fasted for days together. This 
affliction lasted for three years; all remedies failed, and 
the only alleviation she obtained was by the continued 
and earnest prayers of those about her and her own; 
for although this demon did not like prayers, and 
violently opposed her kneeling down, even forcing her 
to outrageous fits of laughter, still they had a power 
over him. It is remarkable that pregnancy, confine- 



OF THE GERMANS, ETC. 449 

ment, and the nursing her child, made not the least 
difference in this woman's condition. All went on 
reg^ilarly, but the demon kept his post. At length, 
being magnetised, the patient fell into a partially som- 
nambulic state, in which another voice was heard to 
proceed from her, being that of her protecting spirit, 
which encouraged her to patience and hope, and pro- 
mised that the evil guest would be obliged to vacate his 
quarters. She often now fell into a magnetic state 
without the aid of a magnetiser. At the end of three- 
years she was entirely relieved, and as well as ever. 

In the case of Kosina Wildin, aged ten years, which 
occurred at Pleiclelsheim, in 1834, the demon used ta 
announce himself by crying out, " Here I am again ! n 
"Whereupon the weak exhausted child, who had been 
lying like one dead, would rage and storm in a voice 
like a man's, perform the most extraordinary move- 
ments and feats of violence and strength, till he would 
cry out, a iSTow I must be off again!" This spirit 
spoke generally in the plural number, for he said> 
she had another beside himself, a dumb devil, who 
plagued her most. " He it is that twirls her round 
and round, distorts her featiu*es, turns her eyes, Jocks 
her teeth, &c. What he bids me, I must do f ' This 
child was at length cured by magnetism. 

Barbara Rieger, of Steinbach, aged ten, in 1834, was 
possessed by two spirits, who spoke in two distinctly 
different male voices and dialects; one said he had for- 
merly been a mason, the other gave himself out for a 
deceased pro visor; the latter of whom was much the 
worst of the two. When they spoke, the child closed 
her eyes, and when she opened them again, she knew 
nothing of what they had said. The mason confessed 
to have been a great sinner, but the pro visor was proud 
and hardened, and would confess nothing. They often 
commanded food, and made her eat it, which, when 
she recovered her individuality, she felt nothing of, but 
was very hungry. The ?nason was very fond of brandy, 



i5Q THE POLTERGEIST 

and drank a great deal; and if not brought when he 
ordered it, his raging and storming was dreadful. In 
her own individuality, the child had the greatest aver- 
sion to this liquor. They treated her for worms and 
other disorders, without the least effect; till at length, 
by magnetism, the mason was cast out. The provisor 
was more tenacious, but, finally, they got rid of him, too, 
and the girl remained quite well. 

In 1835, a respectable citizen, whose full name is not 
given, was brought to Dr. Kerner. He was aged thirty- 
seven, and till the last seven years had been unexcep- 
tionable in conduct and character. An unaccountable 
change had, however, come over him in his thirtieth 
year, which made his family very unhappy; and at 
length, one day, a strange voice suddenly spoke out of 
him, saying, that he was the late magistrate, S., and 
t,hat he had been in him for six years. When tins 
spirit was driven out, by magnetism, the man fell to 
the earth, and was almost torn to pieces by the violence 
of the struggle; he then lay for a space as if dead, and 
arose quite well and free. 

In another case, a young woman at Gruppenbach 
was quite in her senses, and heard the voice of her 
demon (who was also a deceased person) speak out of 
her, without having any power to suppress it. 

In short, instances of this description seem by no 
means rare; and if such a phenomenon as possession 
ever did exist, I do not see what right we have to 
assert that it exists no longer, since, in fact, we know 
nothing about it; only, that being determined to admit 
nothing so contrary to the ideas of the present day, we 
set out by deciding that the thing is impossible. 

Since these cases occur in other countries, no doubt 
they must do so in this; and, indeed, I have met with 
one instance much more remarkable in its details than 
any of those above-mentioned, which occurred at 
Bishopwearmouth, near Sunderland, in the year 1840; 
and as the particulars in this case have been published 



OF THE GERMANS, ETC. 451 

and attested by two physicians and two surgeons, net 
to mention the evidence of numerous other persons, I 
think we are bound to accept the facts, whatever inter- 
pretation we may choose to put upon them. 

The patient, named Mary Jobson, was between, twelve 
and thirteen years of age; her parents, respectable 
people in humble life, and herself an attendant on a 
Sunday school. She became ill in November, 1839 5 
and was soon, afterwards seized with terrific fits, which 
continued, at intervals, for eleven weeks. It was dur- 
ing this period that the family first observed a strange 
knocking, which they could not account for. It was 
sometimes in one place, and sometimes in another; and 
even about the bed, when the girl lay in a quiet sleep, 
with her hands folded outside the clothes. They next 
heard a strange voice, which told them circumstances 
they did not know, but which they afterwards found to 
be correct. Then there was a noise like the clashing 
of arms, and such a rumbling that the tenant below 
thought the house was coming down ; footsteps where 
nobody was to be seen, water falling on the floor, 
no one knew whence, locked doors opened, and above 
all, sounds of ineffably sweet music. The doctors and 
the father were suspicious, and every precaution was 
taken, but no solution of the mystery could be found. 
This spirit, however, was a good one, and it preached 
to them, and gave them a great deal of good advice. 
Many persons went to witness this strange pheno- 
menon, and some were desired to go by the voice, when 
in their own homes. Thus Elizabeth Gauntlett, whilst 
attending to some domestic affairs at home, was startled 
by hearing a voice say, " Be thou faithful, and thou 
shalt see the works of thy God, and shalt hear with 
thine ears 1" She cried out, " My God ! what can this 
be !" and presently she saw a large white cloud near 
her. On the same evening, the voice said to her, " Mary 
Jobson, one of your scholars, is sick; go and see her; 
and it will be good for you. ,: This person did not know 



452 THE POLTETIGEIST 

where the child lived; but having inquired the address, 
she went : and at the door she heard the same voice bid 
her go up. On entering the room, she heard another 
voice, soft and beautiful, which bade her be faithful, 
and said, u I am the Virgin Mary." This voice pro- 
mised her a sign at home; and accordingly that nighty 
whilst reading the Bible, she heard it say, " Jemima, 
be not afraid ; it is I : if you keep my commandments, 
it shall be well with you." When she repeated her 
visit, the same things occurred, and she heard the most 
exquisite music. 

The same sort of phenomena were witnessed by every- 
body who went — the immoral were rebuked, the good 
encouraged. Some were bidden instantly depart, and 
were forced to go. The voices of several deceased per- 
sons of the family were also heard, and made revela- 
tions. 

Once the voice said, " Look up, and you shall see the 
sun and moon on the ceiling !" and immediately there 
appeared a beautiful representation of these planets in 
lively colours, viz., green, yellow, and orange. More- 
over, these figures were permanent; but the- father, who 
was a long time sceptical, insisted on whitewashing 
them over ; however, they still remained visible. 

Amongst other things, the voice said that though the 
child appeared to suffer, that she did not; that she did 
not know where her body was, and that her own spirit 
had left it and another had entered; and that her body 
was made a speaking-trumpet. The voice told the 
family and visitors many things of their c&taiit friends, 
which proved true. 

The girl twice saw a divine form standing by her 
jedside who spoke to her, and Joseph Tvagg, one of the 
persons who had been invited by the voice to go, saw 
a beautiful and heavenly figure come to his bedside 
about eleven o'clock at night, on the 1 7th January. It 
was in male attire, surrounded by a radiance; it came 
a second time on the same night. On each occasion it 



OF THE GERMANS, ETC. 40<3 

opened his curtains and looked at him benignantly, 
remaining about a quarter of an hour. When it went 
away, the curtains fell back in their former position. 
One day, whilst in the sick child's room, Margaret 
Watson saw a lamb, which passed through the door 
and entered a place where the father, John Jobson, 
was ; but he did not see it. 

One of the most remarkable features in this case is 
the beautiful music which was heard by all parties, as 
well as the family, including the unbelieving father, 
and, indeed, it seems to have been, in a great degree, 
this that converted him at last. This music was heard 
repeatedly during a space of sixteen weeks; sometimes 
it was like an organ, but more beautiful; at others, 
there was singing o- holy songs, in parts, and the words 
distinctly heard. The sudden appearance of water in 
the room, too, was Daost unaccountable; for they felt 
it, and it was really water. When the voice desired 
that water should be sprinkled, it immediately appeared 
as if sprinkled. At another time a sign being promised 
to the sceptical father, water would suddenly appear on 
the floor; this happened "not once, but twenty times." 

During the whole course of tins affair the voices told 
them that there was a miracle to be wrought on this 
child; and accordingly, on the 22nd of June, when she 
was as ill as ever, and they were only praying for her 
death, at live o'clock the voice ordered that her clothes 
should be laid out, and that everybody should leave the 
room, except the infant, which was two years and a half 
old. They obeyed; and having been outside the door 
a quarter of an hour, the voice cried, " Come in !" and 
when they entered they saw the girl completely dressed 
and quite well, sitting in a chair with the infant on her 
knee, and she had not an hour's illness from that time 
till the report was published, which was on the 30th of 
January, 1841. 

Now, it is very easy to laugh at all this, and assert that 
these things never happened, because they are absurd 



454 THE POViVEKGEIST 

and impossible; but whilst honest, well-meaning, and 
intelligent people, who were on the spot, assert that 
they did, I confess I find myself constrained to believe 
them, however much I find in the case which is discre- 
pant with my notions. It was not an affair of a day 
or an hour : there was ample time for observation, for 
the phenomena continued from the 9th of February to 
the 22nd of June; and the determined unbelief of the 
father, with regard to the possibility of spiritual appear- 
ances, insomuch that he ultimately expressed great 
regret for the harshness he had used — is a tolerable 
security against imposition. Moreover, they pertina- 
ciously refused to receive any money or assistance 
whatever, and were more likely to suffer in public 
opinion than otherwise by the avowal of these circum- 
stances. 

Dr. Heid Clanny, who publishes the report, with the 
attestations of the witnesses, is a physician of many 
years' experience, and is also, I believe, the original 
inventor of the safety lamp; and he declares his entire 
conviction of the facts, assuring his readers that " many 
persons holding high rank in the Established Church, 
ministers of other denominations, as well as many lay- 
members of society, highly respected for learning and 
piety, are equally satisfied." When he first saw the 
child lying on her back, apparently insensible, with her 
eyes suffused with florid blood, he felt assured that she 
had a disease of the brain; and he was not in the least 
disposed to believe in the mysterious part of the affair, 
till subsequent investigation compelled him to do so; 
and that his belief is of a very decided character we may 
feel assured, when he is content to submit to all the 
obloquy he must incur by avowing it** 

He adds, that since the girl has been quite well, both 
her family and that of Joseph Ragg have frequently heard 

* Dr. Clanny informs me that Mary Jobson is now a very well 
educated and extremely respectable young woman. 



OF THE GERMANS, ETC. 455 

the same heavenly music as they did duri tig hex ill- 
ness; and a Mr. Torbock, a surgeon, who expresses 
himself satisfied of the truth of the above particulars, 
also mentions another case, in which he as well as a 
dying person he was attending, heard divine music just 
before the dissolution. 

Of this last phenomenon, namely, sounds as of 
heavenly music being heard when a death was occur- 
ring, I have met with numerous instances. 

From investigation of the above case, Dr. Clanny has 
arrived at the conviction that the spiritual world do 
occasionally identify themselves with our affairs, and 
Dr. Drury asserts, that besides this instance he has met 
with another circumstance which has left him. firmly 
convinced that we live in a world of spirits, and that 
he has been in the presence of an unearthly being, who 
had " passed that bourne from which, it is said, no 
traveller returns."* 

But the most extraordinary case I have yet met with 
is the following; because it is one which cannot by any 
possibility be attributed to disease or illusion. It is 
furnished to me from the most undoubted authority, 
and I give it as I received it, with the omission of the 
names. I have indeed in this instance thought it right 
to change the initial, and substitute G. for the right 
one, the particulars being of a nature which demand 
delicacy, as regards the parties concerned: — 

" Mrs. S. 0. Hall, in early life, was intimately ac- 
quainted with a family named G., one of whom, 
Richard G, a young officer in the army, was subject to 
a harassing visitation of a kind that is usually regarded 
as supernatural. Mrs. H. once proposed to pay a visit 
to her particular friend, Catherine G., but was told that 
it would not be convenient exactly at that time, as 
Richard was on the point of coming home. She thought 
the inconvenience consisted in the want of a bed- room, 

* Alluding, I conclude, to the affair at Willhigton. 



456 THE POLTERGEIST OF THE GERMANS. 

and spoke of sleeping with Miss G., but found that 
the objection really lay in the fact of Richard being 
" haunted," which rendered it impossible for anybody 
else to be comfortable in the same house with him. A 
few weeks after Richard's return, Mrs. H. heard of Mrs. 
G.'s being extremely ill ; and found, en going to call, 
that it was owing to nothing but the distress the old 
lady suffered in consequence of the strange circum- 
stance connected with her son. It appeared that 
Richard, wherever he was, at home, in camp, in lodg- 
ings, abroad, or in his own country, was liable to be 
visited in his bed-room at night by certain extraor- 
dinary noises. Any light he kept in the room was 
sure to be put out. Something went beating about 
the walls and his bed, making a great noise, and often 
sniffing close to his face, but never becoming visible. 
If a cage-bird . was in his room, it was certain to be 
found dead in the morning. If he kept a dog in the 
apartment, it would make away from him as soon as 
released, and never come near him again. His brother, 
even his mother, had slept in the room; but the visita- 
tion took place as usual. According to Miss G.'s 
report, she and other members of the family would 
listen at the bed-room door after Richard had gone 
to sleep, and would hear the noises commence, and 
they would then hear him sit up. and express his vexa- 
tion by a few military execrations. The young man, 
at length, was obliged by this pest to quit the army, 
and go upon half-pay. Under its influence he be- 
came a sort of Cain; for wherever he lived, the annoy- 
ance was so great that he was quickly obliged to re- 
move. Mrs. H. heard of him having ultimately gone 
to settle in Ireland, where, however, according to the 
report of a brother whom she met about four years ago, 
cue visitation which afflicted him in his early years, 
was in no degree abated." 

This cannot be called a case of possession, but seems 
to be one of rapport, which attaches this invisible 
tormentor to his victim. 



1k5i 



CHAPTER XVII. 

MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA, 

Ih a former chapter, I alluded to the forms seen float- 
ing over graves, by Billing, Pfeffel's amanuensis. By 
some persons, this luminous form is seen only as a light, 
jusfc as occurs in many of the apparition cases I have 
related. How far Baron Reichenbach is correct in his 
conclusion, that these figures are merely the result of 
the chemical process going on below, it is impossible for 
any one at present to say. The fact that these lights do 
not always hover over the graves, but sometimes move 
from thein, militates against this opinion, as I have before 
observed; and the insubstantial nature of the form 
which reconstructed itself after Pfeffel had passed his 
stick through it, proves nothing, since the same is 
asserted of all apparitions I meet with, let them be 
seen where they may, except in such very extraordinary 
cases as that of the Bride of Corinth, supposing that 
story to be true. 

At the same time, although these cases are not made 
out to be chemical phenomena, neither are we entitled 
to class them under the head of what is commonly un- 
derstood by the word ghost; whereby we comprehend 
a shadowy shape, informed by an intelligent spirit. But 
there are some cases, a few of which I will mention, 
that it seems extremely difficult to include under one 
category or the other. 

The late Lieutenant- General Robertson of Lawers, 
who served during the whole of the American war, 
brought home with him, at its termination, a negro, 



458 MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA. 

who went by the name of Black Tom, and who con 
rinued in his service. The room appropriated to the 
use of this man in the General's town residence — I 
speak of Edinburgh — was on the ground floor ; and he 
vas heard frequently to complain that he could not rest 
in it, for that every night the figure cf a headless lady, 
with a child in her arms, rose out of the hearth and 
frightened him dreadfully. Of course nobody believed 
this story, and it was supposed to be the dream of in- 
toxication, as Tom was not remarkable for sobriety; but 
strange to say, when the old mansion was pulled down 
to build Gillespie's Hospital, which stands on its site, 
there was found under the hearth-stone in that apart- 
ment, a box containing the body of a female, from 
which the head had been severed ; and beside her lay 
the remains of an infant wrapt in a pillow-case, trimmed 
with lace. She appeared, poor lady, to have been cut 
off in the " blossom of her sins;" for she was dressed, 
and her scissors were yet hanging by a ribbon to her 
side, and her thimble was also in the box, having, appa- 
rently, fallen from the shrivelled finger. 

Now, whether we are to consider this a ghost, or a 
phenomenon of the same nature as that seen by Billing, 
it is difficult to decide. Somewhat similar is the fol- 
lowing case, which I have borrowed from a little work 
entitled " Supernaturalism in New England." Not only 
does this little extract prove that the same phenomena, 
be they interpreted as they may, exist in all parts of 
the world, but I think it will be granted me, that 
although we have not here the confirmation that 
time furnished in the former instance, yet it is difficult 
to suppose that this unexcitable person should have 
been the subject of so extraordinary a spectral illusion. 

Ci Whoever has seen Great Pond, in the east parish 
of Haverhill, has seen one of the very loveliest of the 
thousand little lakes or ponds of New England. With its 
soft slopes of greenest verdure — its white and sparkling 
sand-rim — its southern hem of pine and maple, mir- 
rored, with spray and leaf, in the glassy water — its 



MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA. 439 

graceful hill-sentinels round about, white with the 
orchard bloom of spring, or tasselled with the corn of 
autumn — its long sweep of blue waters, broken here 
and there by picturesque headlands — it would seem a 
spot, of all others, where spirits of evil must shrink, 
rebuked and abashed, from the presence of the beautiful. 
Yet here, too, has the shadow of the supernatural fallen. 
A lady of my acquaintance, a staid, imimaginative 
church member, states that a few years ago, she was 
standing in the angle formed by two roads, one of which 
traverses the pond shore, the other leading over the hill 
which rises abruptly from the water. It was a warm 
summer evening, just at sunset. She was startled by 
the appearance of a horse and cart, of the kind used a 
century ago in New England, driving rapidly down the 
steep hill-side, and crossing the wall a few yards before 
her, without noise or displacing of a stone. The driver 
sat sternly erect, with a fierce countenance, grasping 
the reins tightly, and looking neither to the right nor 
the left. Behind the cart, and apparently lashed to it, 
was a woman of gigantic size, her countenance con- 
vulsed with a blended expression of rage and agony, 
writhing and struggling, like Laocoon in the folds of 
the serpent. Her head, neck, feet, and arms were 
naked; wild locks of grey hair streamed back from 
temples corrugated and darkened. The horrible caval- 
cade swept by across the street, and disappeared at the 
margin of the pond." 

Many persons will have heard of the " Wild Troop 
of E-odenstein," but few are aware of the curious amount 
of evidence there is in favour of the strange belief 
vvhich prevails amongst the inhabitants of that region. 
The story goes, that the former possessors of the castle of 
Rodenstein and Schnellert, were robbers and pirates, 
who committed, in conjunction, all manner of enormities; 
and that, to this day, the troop, with their horses and 
carriages and dogs, are heard, every now and then, 
wildly rushing along the road betwixt the two castles. 
This sounds Hke a fairv tale; yet so much was it be- 



460 MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA. 

lieved, that up to the middle of the last century regular 
reports were made to the authorities in the neighbour- 
hood, of the periods when the troop had passed. Since 
that, the Landgericht or Court Leet has been removed 
to Furth, and they trouble themselves no longer about 
the Rodenstein Troop: but a traveller named Wirth, 
who a few years ago undertook to examine iuto the 
affair, declares the people assert that the passage of the 
visionary cavalcade still continues; and they assured 
him that certain houses that he saw lying in ruins 
were in that state, because, as they lay directly in the 
way of the troop, they were uninhabitable. There is 
seldom anything seen; but the sound of carriage wheels, 
horses' feet, smacking of whips, blowing of horns, and 
the voice of these fierce hunters, of men urging them 
on, are the sounds by which they recognise that the 
troop is passing from one castle to the other; and at a 
spot which was formerly a blacksmith's, but is now a 
carpenter's, the invisible Lord of Rodenstein still stops 
to have his horse shod. Mr. Wirth copied several of 
the depositions out of the court records, and they are 
brought down to June, 1764. This is certainly a 
strange story; but it is not much more so than that of 
the black man, which I know to be true. 

During the seven years' war in Germany, a drover 
lost his life in a drunken squabble on the high road. 

For some time there was a sort of rude tombstone, 
with a cross on it, to mark the spot where his body was 
interred; but this has long fallen, and a mile-stone now 
fills its place. Nevertheless, it continues commonly 
asserted by the country people, and also by various 
travellers, that they have been deluded in that spot by 
seeing, as they imagine, herds of beasts, which on 
investigation prove to be merely visionary. Of course, 
many people look upon this as a superstition; but a 
very singular confirmation of the story occurred in the 
year 1826, when two gentlemen and two ladies were 
passing the spot in a post carriage. One of these was a 
clergyman, and none of them had ever heard of the 



MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA. 461 

phenomenon said to be attached to the plact,. They 
had been discussing the prospects of the minister, who 
was on his way to a vicarage, to which he had just 
been appointed, when they saw a large flock of sheep^ 
which stretched quite across the road, and was accom- 
panied by a shepherd arid a long haired black dog. As 
to meet cattle on that road was nothing uncommon, 
and indeed they had met several droves in the course of 
the day, no remark was made at the moment, till sud- 
denly each looked at the other and said, "What is 
become of the sheep 1 ?" Quite perplexed at their sudden 
disappearance, they called to the postillion to stop, and 
all got out, in order to mount a little elevation and look 
around, but still unable to discover them, they now 
bethought themselves of asking the postillion where 
they were : when, to their infinite surprise, they learnt, 
that he had not seen them. Upon this, they bade 
him quicken his pace, that they might overtake a 
carriage that had passed them shortly before, and 
inquire if that party had seen the sheep; but they 
had not. 

Four years later, a postmaster named J. was on the 
same road, driving a carriage in which were a clergyman 
and his wife, when he saw a large flock of sheep near 
the same spot. Seeing they were very fine wethers, 
and supposing them to have been bought at a sheep- 
fair that was then taking place a few miles off, J. drew 
up his reins and stopped his horses, turning at the same 
time to the clergyman to say, that he wanted to inquire 
the price of the sheep, as he intended going next day 
to the fair himself. Whilst the minister was asking 
him what sheep he meant, J. got down and found lrim- 
self in the midst of the animals, the size and beauty of 
which astonished him. They passed him at an unusual 
rate, whilst he made his way through them to find the 
shepherd, when, on getting to the end of the flock, 
they suddenly disappeared. He then first learnt that 
his fellow travellers had not seen them at all. 

Now if such cases as these are not pure illusions. 



462 MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA. 

which 1 confess I find it difficult to believe, we must 
suppose that the animals and all the extraneous cir- 
cumstances are produced by the magical will of the 
spirit, either acting on the constructive imagination of 
the seers, or else actually constructing the ethereal 
forms out of the elements at his command; just as we 
have supposed an apparition able to present himself with 
whatever dress or appliances he conceives; or else w -*s 
must conclude these forms to have some relation to th* 
mystery called palingenesia which I have previously 
alluded to; although the motion and change of place 
render it difficult to bring them under this category. 
As for the animals, although the drover was slain, they 
were not; and therefore, even granting them to have 
souls, we cannot look upon them as the apparitions of 
the flock. Neither can we consider the numerous 
instances of armies seen in the air to be apparitions: 
and yet these phenomena are so well established, that 
they have been accounted for by supposing them to be 
atmospherical reflections of armies elsewhere in actual 
motion. But how are we to account for the visionary 
troops which are not seen in the air, but on the very 
ground on which the seers themselves stand? which 
was the case especially with those seen in Havarah 
Park, near Ripley, in the year 1812. These soldiers 
wore a white uniform, and in the centre was a personage 
in a scarlet one. 

After performing several evolutions, the body began 
to march in perfect order to the summit of a hill, 
passing the spectators at the distance of about one 
hundred yards. They amounted to several hundreds, 
and marched in a column, four deep, across about 
thirty acres; and no sooner were they passed, than 
another body, far more numerous, but dressed in dark 
clothes, arose and marched after them, without any ap- 
parent hostility. Both parties having reached the top 
of the hill, and there formed what the spectators called 
^i) L, they disappeared down the other side, and were 



MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA. 463 

<een no more; but at that moment a volume of smoke 
arose like the discharge of a park of artillery, which was 
so thick that the men could not, for two or three 
minutes, discover their own. cattle. They then hurried 
home to relate what they had seen, and the impression 
made on them is described as so great, that they could 
never allude to the subject without emotion. 

One of them was a farmer of the name of Jackson, 
aged forty-five; the other was a lad of fifteen, called 
Turner; and they were at the time herding cattle in 
the park. The scene seems to have lasted nearly a 
quarter of an hour, during which time they were quite 
in possession of themselves, and able to make remarks 
to each other on what they saw.' They were both men 
of excellent character and unimpeached Veracity, inso- 
much that nobody who knew them doubted that they 
actually saw what they described, or, at all events, 
believed that they did. It is to be observed also, that 
the ground is not swampy, nor subject to any exhala- 
tions. 

About the year 1750, a visionary army of the same 
description was seen in the neighbourhood of Inverness 
by a respectable farmer, of Glenary, and his son. The 
number of troops was very great, and they had not the 
slightest doubt that they were otherwise than sub- 
stantial forms of flesh and blood. They counted at 
least sixteen pairs of columns, and had abundance of 
time to observe every particular. The front ranks 
marched seven abreast, and were accompanied by a good 
many women and children, who were carrying tin cans 
and other implements of cookery. ' The men were 
clothed in red, and their arms shone brightly in the 
sun. In the midst of them was an animal, a deer, or a 
horse, they could not distinguish which, that they were 
driving furiously forward with their bayonets. The 
younger of the two men observed to the other, that 
every now and then, the rear ranks were obliged to run 
to overtake the van; and the elder one, who had been 



464 MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA. 

a soldier, remarked that that was always the case, and 
recommended him, if he ever served, to try and march 
in the front. There was only one mounted officer; he 
rode a grey dragoon horse, and wore a gold-laced hat, 
and blue Hussar cloak, with wide open sleeves lined 
with red. The two spectators observed him so par- 
ticularly that they said afterwards they should reco- 
gnise him anywhere. They were, however, afraid of 
being ill-treated, or forced to go along with the troops, 
whom they concluded had come from Ireland, and 
landed at Kyntyre; and whilst they were climbing 
over a dyke to get out of their way, the whole thing 
vanished. 

Some years since, a phenomenon of the 'same sort 
was observed at Paderborn, in Westphalia, and seen 
by at least thirty persons, as well as by horses and dogs, 
as was discovered by the demeanour of these animals. 
In October, 1836, on the very same spot, there was a 
review of twenty thousand men; and the people then 
concluded that the former vision was a second sight. 

A similar circumstance occurred in Stockton Forest 
some years ago; and there are many recorded elsewhere, 
one especially in the year 1686, near Lanark, where for 
several afternoons in the months of June and July, 
there were seen, by numerous spectators, companies of 
men in arms, marching in order by the banks of the 
Clyde, and other companies meeting them, <fec, &c; 
added fco which there were showers of bonnets, hats, 
guns, swords, &c, which the seers described with the 
greatest exactness. All who were present could not 
see these things, and Walker relates, that one gentle- 
man, particularly, was turning the thing into ridicule, 
calling the seers " Damned witches and warlocks, with 
the second sight !" boasting that " The devil a thing 
he could see I" when he suddenly exclaimed, with fear 
and trembling, that he now saw it all; and entreated 
those who did not see to say nothing — a change that 
may be easily accented for, be the phenomena of what 



MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA. 465 

nature it may., by supposing him to have touched one 
of the seers, when the faculty would be communicated 
like a shock of electricity. 

With regard to the palingenesia, it would be neces- 
sary to establish that these objects had previously 
existed, and that, as Oetinger says, the earthly husk 
having fallen off, "the volatile essence had Ascended 
perfect in form, but void of substance." 

The notion supported by Baron Reichenbach thai 
the lights seen in churchyards and over graves are the 
result of a process going on below, is by no means new, 
for Gaffarillus suggested the same opinion in 1650; 
only he speaks of the appearances over graves and in 
churchyards as shadows, ombres, as they appeared to 
Billing; and he mentions, casually, as a thing frequently 
observed, that the same visionary forms are remarked 
on ground where battles have been fought, which he 
thinks arise out of a process betwixt the earth and the 
sun. When a limb has been cut off, some somnambules 
still discern the form of the member as if actually 
attached. 

But this magical process is said to be not only ths 
work of the elements, but also possible to man; and 
that as the forms of plants can be preserved after the 
substance is destroyed, so can that of man be either 
preserved or reproduced from the elements of his body. 
In the reign of Louis XIV. three alchemists having 
distilled some earth, taken from the Cemetery of the 
Innocents, in Paris, were forced to desist, by seeing the 
forms of men appearing in their vials, instead of the 
philosophers stone which they were seeking; and a 
physician, after dissecting a body and pulverising the 
cranium, which was then an article admitted into the 
materia medica, having left the powder on the table of 
his laboratory, in charge of his assistant, the latter, who 
slept in an adjoining rcom, was awakened in the night, 
by hearing a noise, which after some search he ulti- 
mately traced to be pow^ >* • in the midst of which he 



466 MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA. 

beheld ; gradually constructing itself, a human form. 
First appeared the head, with two open eyes, then the 
arms and hands, and by degrees the rest of the per,son r 
which subsequently assumed the clothes it had worn 
when alive. The man was of course frightened out of 
his wits; the rather, as the apparition planted itself 
before ohe door, and would not let hiai go away till it 
had made its own exit, which it speedily did. Similar 
results have been said to arise through experiments 
performed on blood. I confess I should be disposed 
-to consider these apparitions, if ever they appeared, 
cases of genuine ghosts, brought into rapport by the 
operations, rather than forms residing in the bones or 
blood. At all events these things are very hard to 
believe; but seeing we were not there, I do not think 
we have any right to say they did not happen; or at 
least that some phenomena did not occur that were 
open to this interpretation. 

It is highly probable that the seeing of those visionary 
armies and similar prodigies is a sort of second sight; 
but having admitted this, we are very little nearer an 
explanation. Granting that, as in the above experi- 
ments, the essence of things may retain the forms of 
the substance, this does not explain the seeing that 
which has not yet taken place, or which is taking place 
at so great a distance, that neither Oetinger's essence 
&or the superficial films of Lucretius can remove the 
difficulty. 

It is the fashion to say, that second sight was a mere 
superstition of the Highlanders, and that no such thing- 
is ever heard of now; but those who talk in this way 
know very little about the matter. No doubt, if they 
$et out to look for seers, they may not find them; 
such phenomena, though known in all countries, and 
in all ages, are comjoaratively rare, as well as un- 
certain and capricious, and not to be exercised at 
will; but 1 know of too many instances of the ex 
fetence of this faculty in families, as well as of iso 



MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA. 467 

lated eases occurring to individuals above all suspicion, 
to entertain the smallest doubt of its reality. But the 
difficulty of furnishing evidence is considerable; because, 
when the seers are of the humbler classes, they are called 
impostors, and are not believed; and when they are of 
the higher, they do not make the subject a matter of 
conversation, nor choose to expose themselves to the 
ridicule of the foolish; and consequently the thing is 
not known beyond their own immediate friends. "When 
the young Duke of Orleans was killed, a lady residing 
here saw the accident, and described it to her husband 
at the time it was occurring in France. She had 
frequently seen the Duke when on the continent. 

Captain N. went to stay two days at the house ot 
Lady T. After dinner, however, he announced that 
he was under the necessity of going away that night, 
nor could he be induced to remain. On being much 
pressed for an explanation, he confided to some of the 
party, that during dinner he had seen a female figure 
with her throat cut, standing behind Lady T.'s chair. 
Of course it was thought an illusion, but Lady T. was 
not told of it, lest she should be alarmed. That night 
the household was called up for the purpose of sum- 
moning a surgeon — Lady T. had cut her own throat. 

Mr. C, who though a Scotchman, was an entire 
sceptic with regard to the second sight, was told by a 
seer whom he had been jeering on the subject, that 
within a month he (Mr. C.) would be a pall-bearer at 
Jt funeral, that he would go by a certain road, but that 
before they had crossed the brook, a man in & drab 
coat would come down the hill and take the pall from 
him. The funeral occurred, Mr. C. was a bearer, and 
they went by the road described ; but he firmly resolved 
that he would disappoint the seer by keeping the pall 
whilst they crossed the brook; but shortly before they 
reached it, the postman overtook them with letters, 
which in that part of the country arrived but twice a 
week, and Mr c 0., who was engaged in some specula- 



468 MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA. 

tions of importance, turned to receive them; at which 
moment the pall was taken from him, and on looking 
round he saw it was by a man in a drab coat. 

A medical friend of mine, who practised some time 
at Deptford, was once sent for to a girl who had 
been taken suddenly ill. He found her with inflam- 
mation of the brain, and the only account the mother 
could give of it was, that shortly before she had run 
into the room, crying, " Oh, mother, I have seen Uncle 
John drowned in his boat under the fifth arch of Ro- 
chester Bridge I" The girl died a few hours afterwards, 
and on the following night, the uncle's boat ran foul of 
the bridge, and he was drowned, exactly as she had 
foretold. 

Mrs. A., an English lady, and the wife of a clergy- 
man, relates that, previous to her marriage, she with 
her father and mother being at tho sea-side, had 
arranged to make a few days' excursion to some races 
that were about to take place; and that the night 
before they started, the father having been left alone, 
whilst the ladies were engaged in their preparations, 
they found him, on descending to the drawing-room, in 
a state of considerable agitation; which, he said, had 
arisen from his having seen a dreadful face at one corner 
of the room. He described it as a bruised, battered, 
crushed, discoloured face, with the two eyes protruding 
frightfully from their sockets; but the features were 
too disfigured to ascertain if it were the face of any one 
he knew. On the following day, on their way to the 
races, an accident occurred; and he was brought home 
with his own face exactly in the condition he had de- 
scribed. He had never exhibited any other instance 
of this extraordinary faculty, and the impression made 
by. the circumstance lasted the remainder of his life, 
which was unhappily shortened by the injuries he had 
received. The late Mrs. V., a lady of fortune and 
family, who resided near Lochlomond, possessed this 
faculty in an extraordinary degree; and dispkyed it on 



MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA. 469 

many remarkable occasions. When her brother was 
shipwrecked in the Channel, she was heard to exclaim, 
" Thank God, he is saved !" and described the scene, 
with all its circnmstances. 

Colonel David Stewart, a determined disbeliever in 
what he calls the supernatural, in his book on the 
Highlanders, relates the following fact as one so remark- 
able, that " credulous minds" may be excused for be- 
lieving it to have been prophetic. He says, that late 
in an autumnal evening of the year 1773, the son of a 
neighbour came to Iris fathers house, and soon after 
his arrival inquired for a little boy of the family, then 
about three years old. He was shown up to the nur- 
sery, and found the nurse putting a pair of new shoes 
on the child, which she complained did not fit. " Never 
mind," said the young man, " they will fit him before he 
wants them," a prediction which not only offended the 
nurse, but seemed at the moment absurd, since the 
child was apparently in .perfect health. When he 
joined the party in the drawing-room, he being much 
jeered upon this new gift of second sight, he explained, 
that the impression he had received originated in his 
having just seen a funeral passing the wooden bridge 
which crossed a stream at a short distance from the 
house. He first observed a crowd of people, and on 
coming nearer, he saw a person carrying a small coffin, 
followed by about twenty gentlemen, all of his acquaint- 
ance, his own father and a Mr. Stewart being amongst 
the number. He did not attempt to join the proces- 
sion, which he saw turn off into the churchyard; but 
knowing his own father could not be actually there, 
and that Mr. and Mrs. Stewart were then at Blair, he 
felt a conviction that the phenomenon portended the 
death of the child; a persuasion which was verified 
by its suddenly expiring on the following night, and 
Colonel Stewart adds, that the circumstances and at- 
tendants at the funeral were precisely such as the young 
man had described. He mentions also that this gen- 



470 MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA. 

tleman was not a seer; that he was a man of education 
and general knowledge, and that this was the first and 
only vision of the sort he ever had. 

I know of a young lady, who has three times seen 
funerals in this way. 

The old persuasion, that fasting was a means of 
developing the spirit of prophecy, is undoubtedly well 
founded, and the annals of medicine furnish numerous 
facts which establish it. A man condemned to death 
at Yiterbo, having abstained from food in the hope of 
escaping execution, became so clairvoyant, that he could 
tell what was doing in any part of the prison; the ex- 
pression used in the report is, that he saiv through the 
walls: this, however, could not be with his natural 
organs of sight. 

It is worthy of observation, that idiots often possess 
some gleams of this faculty of second sight or presenti- 
ment; and it is probably on this account that they are 
in some countries held sacred. Presentiments, which I 
think may very probably be merely the vague and im- 
perfect recollection of what we knew in our sleep, is 
often observed in drunken people. 

In the great plague of Basle, winch occurred towards 
the end of the sixteenth century, almost everybody who 
died, called out in their last moments, the name of the 
person who was to follow them next. 

Not long ago a servant girl on the estate of D., of S., 
saw with amazement five figures ascending a perpen- 
dicular cliff, quite inaccessible to human feet; one was 
a boy wearing a cap with red binding. She watched 
them with great curiosity till they reached the top, 
where they all stretched themselves on the earth with 
countenances expressive of great dejection. "Whilst she 
was looking at them they disappeared, and she imme- 
diately related her vision. Shortly afterwards, a foreign 
ship in distress was seen to put off a boat with four 
men and a boy; the boat was dashed to pieces in the 
surfj ami the h\e bodies, exactly answering the descrip- 



MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA. 471 

fcion she had given, were thrown on shore at the foot 
of the cliff, which they had perhaps climbed in the 
spirit ! 

How well what we call clairvoyance was known, 
though how little understood, at the period of the witch 
persecution, is proved by what Dr. Henry More says, 
in his u Antidote against Atheism :" — 

" We will now pass to those supernatural effects 
which are observed in them that are bewitched or pos- 
sessed; and such as foretelling things to come, telling 
what such and such persons speak or do, as exactly as if 
they were by them, when the party possessed is at one 
end of the town, and sitting in a house within doors, 
and those parties that act and confer together are 
without, at the other end of the town; to be able to 
see some, and not others; to play at cards with one cer- 
tain person, and not to discern anybody else at the 
table beside him ; to act and talk, and go up and down, 
and tell what will become of things, and what happens 
in those fits of possession ; and then so soon as the pos 
sessed or bewitched party is out of them, to remember 
nothing at all, but to inquire concerning the welfare of 
those whose faces they seemed to look upon but just 
before, when they were in their fits." 

A state which he believes to arise from the devil's hav- 
ing taken possession of the body of the magnetic person, 
which is precisely the theory supported by many fanatical 
persons in our own day. Dr. More was not a fanatic; but 
these phenomena, though very well understood by the an- 
cient philosophers, as well as by Paracelsus, YanHelmont, 
Cornelius Agrippa, Jacob Behmen, a Scotch physician 
called Maxwell, who published on the subject in the 
seventeenth century, and many others, were still, when 
observed, looked upon as the effects of diabolical influ- 
ence by mankind in general. 

When Monsieur Six Deniers, the artist, was drowned 
in the Seine, in 1846, after his body had been vainly 
sought, a somnabule was applied to, in whose hands 



472 MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA. 

they placed a portfolio belonging to him, and beirg 
asked where the owner was, she evinced great terror, 
held up her dress, as if walking in the water, and said 
that he was between two boats, under the Pont des 
Arts, with nothing on but a flannel waistcoat; and 
there he was found. 

A friend of mine knows a lady, who, one morning, 
early, being in a natural state of clairvoyance, without 
magnetism, saw the porter of the house where her son 
lodged, ascend to his room with a carving-knife, go to 
his bed where he lay asleep, lean over him, then open 
a chest, take out a fifty pound note, and retire. On 
the following day, she went to her son and asked him 
if he had any money in the house; he said, " Yes, he 
had fifty pounds/ 1 whereupon, she bade him seek it; 
but it was gone. They stopped payment of the note, 
but did not prosecute, thinking the evidence insuffi- 
cient. Subsequently, the porter being taken up for other 
crimes, the note was found crumpled up at the bottom 
of an old purse belonging to him. 

Dr. Ennemoser says, that there is no doubt of the 
ancient sibyls having been clairvoy antes women, and 
that it is impossible so much value could have been 
attached to their books, had not their revelations been 
verified , 

A maid-servant, residing in a family in Northum- 
berland, one day, last winter, was heard to utter a 
violent scream immediately after she had left the 
kitchen. On following her to inquire what had hap- 
pened, she said that she had just seen her father in his 
night clothes, with a most horrible countenance, and 
she was sure something dreadful had happened to 
him. Two days afterwards there arrived a letter, say- 
ing, he had been seized with delirium tremens, and was 
at the point of death, which accordingly ensued. 

There are innumerable cases of this sort recorded in 
various collections; not to mention the much more 
numerous ones that meet with no recorder; and I could 



MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA. 473 

myself mention many more, but these will suffice — one, 
however, I will not omit, for though historical, it is 
not generally known. A year before the rebellion 
broke out, in consequence of which Lord Kilmarnock 
lost his head, the family were one day startled by a 
violent scream, and on rushing out to inquire what had 
occurred, they found the servants all assembled in 
amazement, with the exception of one maid, who they 
said had gone up to the garrets to hang some linen 
on the lines to dry. On ascending thither, they found 
the girl on the floor, in a state of insensibility; and 
they had no sooner revived her, than on seeing Lord 
Kilmarnock bending over her, she screamed and fainted 
again. When ultimately recovered, she told them that 
whilst hanging up her linen and singing, the door had 
burst open and his lordship's bloody head had rolled 
in. I think it came twice. This event was so well 
known at the time, that on the first rumours of the 
rebellion, Lord Saltoun said, " Kilmarnock will lose 
his head." It was answered, " that Kilmarnock had 
not joined the rebels." " He will, and will be beheaded," 
returned Lord S. 

Now, in these cases we are almost compelled to 
believe that the phenomenon is purely subjective, and 
that there is no veritable outstanding object seen; yet, 
when we have taken refuge in this hypothesis, the 
difficulty remains as great as ever; and is to me much 
more incomprehensible than ghost-seeing, because in 
the latter we suppose an external agency acting in 
some way or other on the seer. 

I have already mentioned that Oberlin, the good 
pastor of Ban de la Roche, himself a ghost-seer, as- 
serted that everything earthly had its counterpart; or 
antitype, in the other world, not only organized, but 
unorganized matter. If so, do we sometimes see these 
antitypes ? 

Dr. Ennemoser, in treating of second sight — which, 
by the way, is quite as well known in Germany, and 



471 MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA. 

especially in Denmark, as in the Highlands of Scot- 
land — says, that as in natural somnambulism, there is 
a partial internal vigilance, so does the seer fall, whilst 
awake, into a dream-state. He suddenly becomes mo- 
tionless and stiff : his eyes are open, and his senses 
are, whilst the vision lasts, unperceptive of all external 
objects; the vision may be communicated by the touch, 
and sometimes persons at a distance from each other, 
but connected by blood or sympathy, have the vision 
simultaneously. He remarks, also, that, as we have 
seen in the above-mentioned case of Mr. C, any 
attempt to frustrate the fulfilment of the vision never 
succeeds, inasmuch as the attempt appears to be taken 
into the account. 

The seeing in glass and in crystals is equally inex- 
plicable; as is the magical seeing of the Egyptians. 
Every now and then we hear it said that this last is 
discovered to be an imposition, because some traveller 
has either actually fallen into the hands of an impostor 
— and there are impostors in all trades; or because the 
phenomenon was imperfectly exhibited; a circumstance 
which, as in the exhibitions of clairvoyants and som- 
nambulists, where all the conditions are not under 
command, or even recognised, must necessarily happen. 
But not to mention the accounts published by Mr. 
Lane and Lord Prudhoe, whoever has read that of 
Monsieur L6on Laborde, must be satisfied that the 
thing is an indisputable fact. It is, in short, only 
another form of the seeing in crystals, which has been 
known in all ages, and of which many modern instances 
have occurred amongst somnambulic patients. 

We see by the 44th chapter of Genesis that it was 
by his cup that Joseph prophesied : " Is not this it 
id which my lord drinketh, and whereby indeed he 
divineth ?" But, as Dr. Passavant observes, and as we 
shall presently see in the anecdote of the boy and the 
gipsy, the virtue does not lie in the glass nor in the 
water, but in the seer himself, who may possess a more 



MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA. 475 

or less developed faculty, the external objects and 
ceremonies being only the means of concentrating the 
attention and intensifying the power. 

Monsieur L6on Laborde witnessed the exhibition, at 
Cairo, before Lord P.'s visit; the exhibitor, named 
Achmed, appeared to him a respectable man, who 
spoke simply of his science, and had nothing of the 
charlatan about him. The first child employed was a 
boy of eleven years old, the son of a European; and 
Achmed having traced some figures on the palm of his 
hand, and poured ink over them, bade him look for 
the reflection of his own face. The child said he saw 
it; the magician then burnt some powders in a brazier, 
and bade him tell him when he saw a soldier sweeping 
a place; and whilst the fumes from the brazier diffused 
themselves he pronounced a sort of litany. Presently 
the child threw back his head, and, screaming with 
terror, sobbed out, whilst bathed in tears, that he had 
seen a dreadful, face. Fearing the boy might be in- 
jured, Monsieur Laborde now called up a little Arab 
servant, who had never seen or heard of the magician. 
He was gay and laughing, and not at all frightened; 
and the ceremony being repeated, he said he saw the 
soldier sweeping in the front of a tent. He was then 
desired to bid the soldier bring Shakspeare, Colonel 
Craddock, and several other persons; and he described 
every person and thing so exactly as to be entirely 
satisfactory. During the operations the boy looked as 
if intoxicated; with his eyes fixed and the perspiration 
dripping from his brow. Achmed disenchanted him by 
placing his thumbs on his eyes; he gradually recovered, 
ind gaily related all he had seen, which he perfectly 
remembered. 

Now this is merely another form of what the Lap- 
landers, the African magicians, and the Schaamans of 
Siberia, do by taking narcotics and turning round till 
they fall down in a state of insensibility, in which con- 
dition they are clear-seers, and, besides vaticinating, 
h H 



476 MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA. 

describe scenes, places, and persons they liave never 
beheld. In Barbary they anoint their hands with a 
black ointment, and then holding them up in the sun 
they see whatever they desire, like the Egyptians. 

Lady S. possesses somewhat of a similar faculty, na- 
turally. By walking rapidly round a room several times, 
till a certain degree of vertigo is produced, she will 
name to you any person you have privately thought of, 
or agreed upon with others. Her phrase is, u I see so 
and so." 

Monsieur Laborde purchased the secret of Achmed, 
who said he had learnt it from two celebrated Scheicks 
of his own country, which was Algiers. Monsieur L. 
found it connected both with physics and magnetism, 
and he practised it himself afterwards with perfect 
success, and he affirms positively, that under the in- 
fluence of a particular organization, and certain ceremo- 
nies, amongst which he cannot distinguish which are 
indispensable and which are not, that children without 
fraud or collusion can see as through a window or peep- 
hole people moving, who appear and disappear at com- 
mand, and with whom they hold communication — and 
they remember everything after the operation. He 
says, "I narrate, but exj)lain nothing; I produced 
those effects, but cannot comprehend them; I only 
affirm, in the most positive manner, that what I relate 
is true. I performed the experiment in various places, 
with various subjects, before numerous witnesses, in my 
own room or other rooms, in the open air, and even in 
a boat on the Nile. The exactitude and detailed de- 
scriptions of persons, places, and scenes, could by no 
possibility be feigned." 

Moreover, Baron Dupotet has very lately succeeded 
in obtaining these phenomena in Paris, from persons, 
not somnambulic, selected from his audience; the chief 
difference being that they did not recollect what they 
had seen when the crisis was over. 

Cagliostro, though a charlatan, was possessed of thi3 



MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA. 477 

secret; and it was his great success in it that chiefly- 
sustained his reputation; the spectators, convinced he 
could make children see distant places and persons in 
glass, were persuaded he could do other things, which 
appeared to them no more mysterious. Dr. Dee was 
perfectly honest, with regard to his mirrcT in which he 
could see, by concentrating his mind on it; but as he 
oould not remember what he saw, he employed Kelly 
to see for him, whilst he himself wrote down the reve- 
lations; and Kelly was a rogue, and deceived and 
ruined him. 

A friend of Pfeffel's knew a boy, apprenticed to an 
apothecary at Schoppenweyer, who, having been ob- 
served to amuse himself by looking into vials filled 
with water, was asked what he saw; when it was dis- 
covered that he possessed this faculty of seeing in glass, 
which was afterwards very frequently exhibited for the 
satisfaction of the curious. Pfeffel also mentions 
another boy, who had this faculty, who went about the 
country with a small mirror, answering questions, re- 
covering stolen goods, and so forth. He said that he 
one day fell in with some gipsies, one of whom was 
sitting apart, and staring into this glass. The boy, 
from curiosity, looked over his shoulder, and exclaimed 
that he saw " a fine man, who was moving about ;" 
thereupon the gipsy, having interrogated him, gave 
him the glass ; " For," said he, " I have been staring in 
it long enough, and can see nothing but my own face." 

It is almost unnecessary to observe, that the sacred 
books of the Jews, and of the Indians, testify to their 
i acquaintance with this mode of divination, as well as 
many others. 

Many persons will have heard or read an account of 
Mr. Canning and Mr. Huskisson having seen, whilst 
in Paris, the visionary representation of their own 
j deaths in water, as exhibited to them by a Russian or 
Polish lady there; as I do not, however, know what 
authority there is for this story, I will not insist on it 



47 8 MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA. 

here. But St. Simon relates a very curious circum- 
stance of this nature, which occurred at Paris, and was 
related to him by the Duke of Orleans, afterwards 
Kegent. The latter said that he had sent on the 
preceding evening for a man, then in Paris, who pre- 
tended to exhibit whatever was desired in a glass of 
water. He came, and a child of seven years old, 
belonging to the house, being called up, they bade her 
tell what she saw doing in certain places. She did; 
and, as they sent to these places, and found her report 
correct, they bade her next describe under what circum- 
stances the king would die; without, however, asking 
when the death would take place. 

The child knew none of the Court, and had never 
been at Versailles; yet she described everything 
exactly — the room, bed, furniture, and the king him- 
self ; Madame de Maintenon, Fagon, the physician, the 
princes and princesses — everybody, in short, including 
a child wearing an order, in the arms of a lady, whom 
she recognised as having seen; this was Madame de 
Ventadour. 

It was remarkable that she omitted the Dukes de 
Bourgogne and Berry, and Monseigneur, and also the 
Duchess de Bourgogne. Orleans insisted they must be 
there, describing them; but she always said, "No" 
These persons were then all well; but they died before 
the king. She also saw the children of the Prince and 
Princess of Conti, but not themselves; which was 
correct, as they also died shortly after this occurrence, 

Orleans then wished to see his own destiny; and the 
maE said, if he would not be frightened he could show 
it him, as if painted on the wall; and after fifteen 
minutes of conjuration, the duke appeared, of the 
natural size, dressed as usual, but with a couronne 
fermee or closed crown on his head, which they could 
not comprehend, as it was not that of any country they 
knew of. It covered his head, had only four circles, 
and nothing at the top. They had never seen such an 



MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA. 479 

one. When lie became regent/ they understood that 
that was the interpretation of the prediction. 

In connexion with this subject, the aversion to glas3 
frequently manifested by dogs, is well worthy of 
observation. 

When facts of this kind are found to be recorded, or 
believed in, hi all parts of the world, from the beginning 
of it up to the present time, it is surely vain for the so^ 
called savants to deny them; and as Cicero justly says, 
in describing the different kinds of magic, " What we 
have to do with, is the facts, since of the cause we know 
little. Neither/' he adds, " are we to repudiate these 
phenomena, because we sometimes find them imperfect, 
or even false, any more than we are to distrust that the 
human eye sees, although some do this very imperfectly, 
or not all." 

We are part spirit and part matter; by the former 
we are allied to the spiritual world and to the absolute 
spirit; and as nobody doubts that the latter can work 
magically, that is, by the mere act of will— for by the 
mere act of will all things were created, and by its 
consistent exertion all things are sustained — why 
should we be astonished that we, who partake of the 
divine nature, and were created after God's own image, 
should also, within certain limits, partake of this 
magical power 1 That this power has been frequently 
abused, is the fault of those, who, being capable, refuse 
to investigate, and deny the existence of these and 
similar phenomena: and by thus casting them out of 
the region of legitimate science, leave them to become 
the prey of the ignorant and designing, 

Dr. Ennemoser, in his very learned work on magic, 
shows us that all the phenomena of magnetism and 
somnambulism, and all the varous kinds of divination, 
have been known and practised in every country under 
the sun; and have been intimately connected with, and, 
indeed, may be traced up to, the fountain-head of every 
religion. 



480 MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA. 

What are the limits of these powers possessed by us 
whilst in the flesh, how far they may be developed, 
and whether, at the extreme verge of what we can 
effect, we begin to be aided by God or by spirits 
of other spheres of existence bordering on ours, we 
know not; but, with respect to the morality of these 
practices, it suffices that what is good in act or in- 
tention must come of good; and what is evil in act or 
intention must come of evil; which is true now, as it 
was in the time of Moses and the ju-ophets, when 
miracles and magic were used for purposes holy and 
unholy, and were to be judged accordingly. God 
works by natural laws, of which we yet know very 
little, and, in some departments of his kingdom, 
nothing; and what appears to us supernatural, only 
appears so from our ignorance; and whatever faculties 
or powers he has endowed us with, it must have been 
designed we should exercise and cultivte for the benefit 
and advancement of our race; nor can I for one moment 
suppose, that though, like everything else, liable to 
abuse, the legitimate exercise of these powers, it we 
knew their range, would be useless, much less per- 
nicious or sinful. 

Of the magical power of will, as I have said before, 
we know nothing; and it does not belong to a purely 
rationalistic age to acknowledge what it cannot under- 
stand. In all countries men have arisen, here and 
there, who have known it, and some traces of it have 
survived, both in language and popular superstition .*>. 
u If ye have faith as a grain of mustard -seed, ye shall 
say unto this mountain, Remove hence, and it shall 
remove; and nothing shall be impossible to you. 
Howbeit, this kind goeth not out but by prayer and 
fasting." And, veuillez et croyez, will and believe, was 
the solution Puysegur gave of his magical cures; and 
no doubt the explanation of those effected by royal 
hands, is to be found in the fact, that they believed in 
themselves, and having faith, they could exercise will 



MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA. 481 

But with the belief in the divine right of kings, the 
faith and the power would naturally expire together. 

With respect to what Christ says in the above-quoted 
passage of fasting, numerous instances are extant, 
proving that clear-seeing and other magical or spiritual 
powers are sometimes developed by it. 

Wilhelm Krause, a doctor of philosophy, and a 
lecturer at Jena, who died during the prevalence of the 
cholera, cultivated these powers and preached them. I 
have not been able to obtain his works, they being 
suppressed, as far as is practicable, by the Prussian 
Government. Krause could leave his body, and, to all 
appearance, die whenever he pleased. One of his dis- 
ciples, yet living, the Count Von Eberstein, possesses the 
same faculty. 

Many writers of the sixteenth century were well 
acquainted with the power of will, and to this was 
attributed the good or evil influence of blessings and 
curses. They believed it to be of great effect in 
curing diseases, and that by it alone life might be 
extinguished. That, subjectively, life may be ex- 
tinguished, we have seen by the cases of Colonel 
Townshend, the Dervish that was buried, Hermotinus, 
and others: for doubtless the power that could perform 
so much, could, under an adequate motive, have per- 
formed more: and since all things in nature, spiritual 
and material, are connected, and that there is an un- 
ceasing interaction betwixt them, we being members of 
one great whole, only individualized by our organisms, 
it is possible to conceive that the power which can be 
exerted on our own organism might be extended to 
others: and since we cannot conceive man to be an 
isolated being — the only intelligence besides God — none 
above us and none below — but must, on the contrary, 
believe that there are numerous grades of intelligences, 
it seems to follow, of course, that we must stand in 
some kind of relation to them, more or less intimate: 
nor is it at all surprising that with some individuals 



4:82 MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA. 

tliis reJateon should be more intimate-than with others. 
Finally, we are not entitled to deny the existence of 
this magical or spiritual power, either as exerted by 
incorporated or unincorporated spirits, because we do 
not comprehend hew it can be exerted; since m spite 
of all the words that have been expended on the 
subject, we are equally ignorant of the mode in which 
our own will acts upon our own. muscle3. We know 
the fact, but not the mode of it. 






483 



CHAPTER XV UL 

CONCLUSION. 

Or the power of the mind over matter, we have % r&« 
markable example in the numerous well-authenticated 
instances of the Stigmata. As in most cases this phe- 
nomenon has been connected with a state of religious 
exaltation, and has been appropriated by the Roman 
Church as a miracle, the fact has been in this country 
pretty generally discredited ; but without reason ; En* 
nemoser, Passavant, Schubert, and other eminent Ger- 
man physiologists, assure us that not only is- the fact 
perfectly established, as regards many of the so-called 
saints, but also that there have been indubitably modern 
instances, as in the case of the Ecstaticas of the Tyrol, 
Catherine Emmerich, commonly called the ISTun of Dul- 
men, Maria Mori, and Domenica Lazzari, who have all 
exhibited the stigmata. 

Catherine Emmerich, the most remarkable of the 
three, began very early to have visions, and to display 
unusual endowments. She was very pious; could dis- 
tinguish the qualities of plants, reveal secrets or distant 
circumstances, and knew people's thoughts; but was, 
however, exti mely sickly, and exhibited a varietur oi 
extraordinary and distressing symptoms, which ter- 
minated in he death. The wounds of the crown of 
thorns round her head, and those of the nails in he* 
hands and feet, were as perfect as if painted by an 
artist, and the^ bled regularly on Fridays. There wag 
also a double croas on her breast. When the blood 
was wiped awa' T , the marks looked like the puncture oi 



484 CONCLUSION. 

flies. She seldom took any nourishment but water, 
and having been but a poor cow-keeper, she discoursed, 
when in the ecstatic state, as if inspired. 

I am well aware that on reading this, many persons 
who never saw her will say it was all imposture. It is 
very easy to say this; but it is as absurd as presump- 
tuous to pronounce on what they have had no oppor- 
tunity of observing. T never saw these women either ; 
but I find myself much more disposed to accept the 
evidence of those who did, than of those who only " do 
not believe, because they do not believe." 

Neither Catherine Emmerich nor the others, made 
their sufferings a source of profit, nor had they any 
desire to be exhibited ; but quite the contrary. She 
could see in the dark as well as the light, and frequently 
worked all night at making clothes for the poor, with- 
out lamp or candle. 

There have been instances of magnetic patients being- 
stigmatised in this manner. Madam B. Yon N. dreamt 
one night that a person offered her a red and a white 
rose, and that she chose the latter. On awaking she 
felt a burning pain in her arm, and by degrees, there 
arose there the figure of a rose perfect in form and 
colour. It was rather raised above the skin. The 
mark increased in intensity till the eighth day, after 
which it faded away, and by the fourteenth was no 
longer perceptible. 

A letter from Moscow, addressed to Dr. Kerner, in 
consequence of reading the account of the Nun of 
Dulmen, relates a still more extraordinary case. At 
the time of the French invasion, a Cossack having 
pursued a Frenchman into a cut de sac, an alley 
without an outlet, there ensued a terrible conflict 
between them, in which the latter was severely wounded. 
A person who had taken refuge in this close, and could 
not get away, was so dreadfully frightened, that when 
he reached home, there broke out on his body the very 
same wounds that the Cossack had inflicted on his 
e-ueniy. 



CONCLUSION. 485 

The signatures of the foetus are analogous facts; and 
if the mind of the mother can thus act on another or- 
gan ism, why not the mind3 of the saints, or of Catherine 
Emmerich, on their own. From the influence of the 
mother on the child, we have but one step to that 
asserted to be possible, betwixt two organisms, not 
visibly connected; for the difficulty therein lies, that 
we do not see the link that connects them, though, 
doubtless, it exists. Dr. Blacklock, who lost his eye- 
sight at an early period, said, that, when awake, he 
distinguished persons by hearing and feeling them, but 
when asleep, he had a distinct impression of another 
sense. He then seemed to himself united to them by 
a kind of distant contact, which was effected by threads 
passing from their bodies to his, which seems to be but 
a metaphorical expression of the fact, for, whether the 
connexion be maintained by an all-pervading ether, or 
be purely dynamic, that the interaction exists both 
betwixt organic and inorganic bodies, is made evident 
wherever there is sufficient excitability to render the 
effects sensible. Till very lately, the powers of the 
divining-rod were considered a mere fable; yet, that 
this power exists, though not in the rod, but in the 
person that holds it, is now perfectly well established. 
Count Tristan, who has written a book on the subject, 
says, that about one in forty have it, and that a com- 
plete course of experiments has proved the phenomenon 
to be electric. The rod seems to serve, in some degree, 
the same purpose as the magical mirror and conjura- 
tions, and it is, also ; serviceable, in presenting a result 
visible to the eye of the spectator. But, numerous 
cases are met with, in which metals or water are per- 
ceived beneath the surface of the earth, without the 
intervention of the rod. A man, called Bleton, from 
Dauphigny, possessed this divining power in a re- 
markable degree, as did a Swiss girl, called Katherine 
Beutler. She was strong and healthy, and of a phleg- 
matic temperament; yet, so susceptible of these in- 
fluences, that, without the rod, she pointed out and 



486 CONCLUSION. 

traced tiie course of water, veins of metal, coal beds, 
salt mines, &c. The sensations produced were nume- 
rous on the soles of her feet, sometimes on her tongue, 
or in her stomach. She never lost the power wholly, 
but it varied considerably in intensity at different 
times, as it did with Bleton. She was also rendered 
sensible of the bodily pains of others, by laying he* 
hand on the affected part ; or near it, and she performed 
several magnetic cures. 

A person now alive, uamed Dussange, in the Macon-* 
n£s, possesses this power. He is a simple, honest man, 
who can give no account of his own faculty. The 
Abbes Chatelard and Paramelle can also discover sub- 
terraneous springs; but they say that it is effected by 
means of their geological science: Monsieur D., of 
Cluny, however, found the faculty of Dussange much 
more to be relied on. The Greeks and Romans made 
hydroscopy an art; and there are works alluded to as 
having existed on this subject, especially one by Mar- 
cellus. The caduceus of Mercury, the wand of Circe, 
and the wands of the Egyptian sorcerers, show that the 
wand or rod was always looked upon as a symbol of 
divination. One of the most remarkable instances of 
the use of the divining-rod is that of Jacques Aymar. 

On the 5th July, 1692, a man and his wife were 
murdered in a cellar at Lyons, and their house was 
robbed. Having no clue whatever to the criminal, this 
peasant, who had the reputation of being able to dis- 
cover murderers, thieves, and stolen articles by means 
of the divining-rod, was sent for from Dauphigny. 
Aymar undertook to follow the footsteps of the assas- 
sinS; but he said he must first be taken into the cellar 
whei^e the murder was committed. The Procurator 
Royal conducted him thither, and they gave him a 
rod out of the first wood that came to hand. He 
walked about the cellar, but the rod did not move 
till he came to the spot where the man hod been killed. 
Then Aymar became agitated, and his pulse beat aj 



coxclusio^. 487 

if he were in a high fever, and all these symptoms 
were augmented when he approached the spot on which 
they had found the body of the woman. From this, 
he of his own accord went into a sort of shop Yv r here 
the robbery had been committed ; from thence he pro- 
ceeded into the street, tracing the assassin step by step, 
firs£ to the court of the Archbishop's palace, then out 
of the city, and along the right side of the river. He 
was escorted all the way by three persons appointed for 
the purpose, who all testified that sometimes he de- 
tected the traces of three accomplices, sometimes only 
of two. He led the way to the house of a, gardener, 
where he insisted that they had touched a table and 
one of the three bottles that were yet standing upon it. 
It was at first denied; but two children, of nine or ten 
years old, said that three men had been there, and had 
been served with wine in that bottle. Aymar then 
traced them to the river, where they had embarked in a 
boat; and what is very extraordinary, he tracked them 
as surely on the water as on the land. He followed 
them wherever they had gone ashore, went straight to 
the places they had lodged at, pointed out their beds, 
and the very utensils of every description that they 
had used. On arriving at Sablon, where some troops 
were encamped, the rod and his own sensations satis- 
fied him that the assassins were there; but fearing the 
soldiers would ill-treat him, he refused to pursue the 
enterprise further, and returned to Lyons. He was, 
however, promised protection, and sent back by water, 
with letters of recommendation. On reaching Sablon, 
he said they were no longer there, but he tracked them 
into Languedoc, entering every house they had stopped 
at ; till he at length reached the gate of the prison, in 
the town of Beaucaire, where he said one of them 
would be found. They brought all the prisoners before 
him, amounting to fifteen, and the only one his rod 
turned on was a little Bossu, or deformed man, who 
had just been brought in for a petty theft. He then 



4:88 CONCLUSION. 

ascertained that the two others had taken the road to 
Nismes, and offered to follow them; but as the man 
denied all knowledge of the murder, and declared he 
had never been at Lyons, it was thought best that they 
should return there; and as they went the way they 
had come, and stopped at the same houses, where he 
was recognised, he at length confessed that he had 
travelled with two men who had engaged him to assist 
in the crime. What is very remarkable, it was found 
necessary that Jacques Aymar should walk in front of the 
criminal; for when he followed him he became violently 
sick. From Lyons to Beaucaire is forfcy-fi ve miles. 

As the confession of the Bossu confirmed all that 
Aymar had asserted, the affair now created an immense 
sensation, and a great variety of experiments were 
instituted, every one of which proved perfectly satis- 
factory. Moreover, two gentlemen, one of them the 
Comptroller of the Customs, were discovered to possess 
this faculty, though in a minor degree. They now took 
Aymar back to Beaucaire, that he might trace the other 
two criminals, and he went straight again to the prison 
gate, where he said that now another would be found. 
On inquiry, however, it was discovered that a man 
had been there to inquire for the Bossu, but was gone 
again. He then followed them to Toulon, and finally 
to the frontier of Spain, which set a limit to further 
researches. He was often so faint and overcome with 
the effluvia, or whatever it was that guided him, that 
the perspiration streamed from his brow, and they 
were obliged to sprinkle him with water to prevent his 
fainting. 

He detected many robberies in the same way. His 
rod moved whenever he passed over metals, or water, 
or stolen goods; but he found that he could distinguish 
fcba track of a murderer from all the rest, by the 
horror and pain he felt. He made this discovery acci- 
dentally as he was searching for water. They dug up 
the ground, and found the body of a woman that had 
been strangled. 



CONCLUSION 489 

I have myself met with three or four persons in 
whose hands the rod turned visibly; and there are 
numerous very remarkable cases recorded in different 
works. In the Hartz, there is a race of people who 
support themselves entirely by tins sort of divination, 
and as they are paid very highly, and do nothing else, 
they are generally extremely worthless and dissipated. 

The extraordinary susceptibility to atmospheric 
changes in certain organisms, and the faculty by which 
a dog tracks the foot of his master, are analogous facts 
to those of the divining-rod. Mr. Boyle mentions a 
lady who always perceived if a person that visited her 
came from a place where snow had lately fallen. I 
have seen one who, if a quantity of gloves are given 
her, can tell to a certainty to whom each belongs; and 
a particular friend of my own on entering a room, can 
distinguish perfectly who has been sitting in it, pro- 
vided these be persons he is familiarly acquainted with. 
Numerous extraordinary stories are extant respecting 
this kind of faculty in dogs. 

Doubtless, not only our bodies, but all matter, sheds 
its atmosphere around it; the sterility of the ground 
where metals are found is notorious; and it is asserted 
"hat, to some persons, the vapours that emanate from 
below are visible; and that, as the height of the moun- 
tains round a lake furnishes a measure of its depth, so 
does the height to which these vapours ascend show 
how far below the surface the mineral treasures or the 
water lie. The efibct of metals on somnambulic per- 
sons is well known to all who have paid any attention 
to these subjects; and surely may be admitted, when it 
is remembered that Humboldt has discovered the same 
sensibility in zoophytes, where no traces of nerves could 
be detected; and many years ago Frascatorius asserted 
that symptoms resembling apoplexy were sometimes in- 
duced by the proximity of a large quantity of metal. A 
gentleman is mentioned who could not enter the Mint 
at Paris without fainting. In short, so many well 
t tested cases of idiosyncratic sensibilities exist, that we 



490 CONCLUSION. 

have no right to reject others because they appear in- 
comprehensible. 

Now, we may not easily conceive, but we know it to 
be a fact, that fear, grief, and other detrimental passions, 
vitiate the secretions,* and augment transpiration ; and 
it is quite natural to suppose, that where a crime has 
been committed which necessarily aroused a number of 
turbulent emotions, exhalations perceptible to a very 
acute sense, may for some time hover over the spot; 
whilst the anxiety, the terror, the haste, in short, the 
general commotion of system, that must accompany a 
murderer in his flight, is quite sufficient tc account 
for his path being recognisable by such an abnormal 
faculty; " For the wicked fleeth when no man pur- 
sueth." We also know that a person perspiring with 
open pores, is more susceptible than another to conta- 
gion ; and we have only to suppose the pores of Jacques 
Aymar so constituted as easily to imbibe the emana- 
tions shed by the fugitive, and we see why he should 
be affected by the disagreeable sensations he describes. 
The disturbing effect of odours on some persons, 
which are quite inoxious to others, must have been 
observed by everybody. Some people do actually 
almost " die of a rose in aromatic pain." Boyle says 
that, in his time, many physicians avoided giving drugs 
to children, having found that .external applications, to 
be imbibed by the skin, or by respiration, were 
sufficient; and the Homoeopaths occasionally use the 
same means now. Sir Charles Bell told me, that Mr. 
F., a gentleman well known in public life, had only to 
hold an old book to his nose, to produce all the effects 
of a cathartic. Elizabeth Okey was oppressed with 
most painful sensations when near a person whose 
frame was sinking. Whenever this effect was of a 

* In the " Medical Annals" a case is recorded of a young lady 
whose axillary excretions were rendered so offensive by the fright 
and horror she had experienced in seeing some of her relations assas- 
sinated in India, that she ^Yas unable to go into society 



CONCLUSION. 491 

certain intensity, Dr. Elliotson observed that the 
patient invariably died. 

Herein lies the secret of Amulets and Talismans, 
vhich grew to be a vain superstition, but in "which, as 
in all popular beliefs, there was a germ of truth. Som- 
nambulic persons frequently prescribe them ) and absurd 
as it may seem to many, there are instances in which 
their efficacy has been perfectly established, be the 
interpretation of the mystery what it may. In a great 
plague, which occurred in Moravia, a physician, who 
was constantly amongst the sufferers, attributed the 
complete immunity of himself and his family to their 
wearing amulets, composed of the powder of toads; 
" which," says Boyle, " caused an emanation adverse to 
the contagion." A Dutch physician mentions, that in 
the great plague of Nimeguen, the pest seldom attacked 
any house till they had used soap in washing their 
linen. Wherever this was done, it appeared im- 
mediately. 

In short, we are the subjects, and so is everything 
around us, of all manner of subtle and inexplicable 
influences; and if our ancestors attached too much 
importance to these ill-understood arcana of the Night 
Side of nature, we have attached too little. The sym- 
pathetic effects of multitudes on each other, of the 
young sleeping with the old, of magnetism on plants 
and animals, are now acknowledged facts: may not 
many other asserted phenomena that we yet laugh at, 
be facts also, though probably too capricious in their 
nature — by which I mean, depending on laws beyond 
our apprehension — to be very available ? For I take 
it, that as there is no such thing as chance, but aD 
would be certainty if we knew the whole of the con- 
ditions, so no phenomena are really capricious and un- 
certain; they only appear so to our ignorance and short- 
sightedness. 

The strong belief that formerly prevailed in the 
efficacy of sympathetic cures, can scarcely have existed, 
1 1 



492 CONCLUSION. 

I think, without some foundation; nor are they a whit 
more extraordinary than the sympathetic falling of 
pictures and stopping of clocks and watches, of which 
such numerous well-attested cases are extant, that 
several learned German physiologists of the present 
day pronounce the thing indisputable. I have myself 
heard of some very perplexing instances. 

Gaffarillus alludes to a certain sort of magnet, not 
resembling iron, but of a black and white colour, with 
which, if a needle or knife were rubbed, the body might 
be punctured or cut without pain. How can we know 
that this is not true. Jugglers who slashed and caute- 
rized their bodies for the amusement of the public were 
supposed to avail themselves of such secrets. 

How is it possible for us, either, to imagine that the 
numerous recorded cases of the Blood Ordeal, which 
consisted in the suspected assassin touching the body of 
his victim, can have been either pure fictions or coin- 
cidences'? Not very long ago, an experiment of a 
frightful nature is said to have been tried in France on 
a somnambulic person, by placing on the epigastric 
region a vial filled with the arterial blood of a criminal 
just guillotined. The effect asserted to have been pro- 
duced was the establishment of a rapport between the 
somnambule and the deceased, which endangered the 
life of the former. 

Franz von Baader suggests the hypothesis of a vis 
sanguinis ultra mortem, and supposes that a rapporC 
or communio vitce may be established betwixt the mur- 
derer and his victim; and he conceives the idea ot 
this mutual relation to be the true interpretation of 
the sacrificial rites common to all countries, as also of 
the Blutschuld, or the requiring blood for blood. 

"With regard to the blood ordeal, the following are 
the two latest instances of it recorded to have taken 
place in this country: they are extracted from i; Har- 
grave's State Trials : " — 

" Evidence having been given with respect to the 



CONCLUSION. 493 

death of Jane Norkott, an ancient and grave person, 
minister of the parish in Hertfordshire where the 
murder took place, being sworn, deposed that, the body 
being taken up out of the grave, and the four defendants 
being present, were required, each of them, to touch the 
dead body. Okeman's wife fell upon her knees, and 
prayed God to show token of her innocency. The 
appellant did touch the body, whereon the brow of the 
deceased, which was before a livid and carrion colour 
began to have a dew, or gentle sweat on it, whLh 
increased by degrees till the sweat ran down in drops on 
the face; the brow turned to a lively and fresh colour, 
and the deceased opened one of her eyes and shut it 
again, and this opening the eye was done three several 
times; she likewise thrust out the ring, or marriage 
finger three times, and pulled it in again, and blood 
dropped from the finger on the grass. 

" Sir Nicholas Hyde, the chief justice, seeming to 
doubt this evidence, he asked the witness, who saw 
these things beside him, to which he, the witness, an- 
swered, ( My Lord, I cannot swear what others saw, 
but I do believe the whole company saw it; and if it 
had been thought a doubt, proof would have been made, 
and many would have attested with me. My lord,' 
added the witness, observing the surprise his evidence 
awakened, e I am minister of the parish, and have long 
known all the parties, but never had displeasure against 
any of them, nor they with me, but as I was minister. 
The thing was wonderful to me, but I have not interest 
in the matter, except as called on to testify to the truth. 
My lord, my brother, who is minister of the next 
parish, is here present, and I am sure saw all that ] 
have affirmed.' " 

Hereupon, the brother, being sworn, he confirmed the 
above evidence in every particular ; and the first witness 
added, that having dipped his finger into what appeared 
to be blood, he felt satisfied that it was really so. It is to 
be observed, that this extraordinary circumstance mus* 



i94 CONCLUSION. 

have occurred, if it occurred at all, when the body had 
been upwards of a month dead ; for it was taken up in 
consequence of various rumours implicating the pri- 
soners, after the coroner's inquest had given in a verdict 
of felo de se. On their first trial, they were acquitted, 
but, an appeal being brought, they were found guilty 
and executed. It was on this latter occasion that the 
above strange evidence was given, which, being taken 
down at the time by Sir John Maynard, then Serjeant- 
at-Law, stands recorded, as I have observed, in Har- 
graves edition of " State Trials." 

The above circumstances occurred in the year 1628, 
and in 1688 the blood ordeal was again had recourse to 
in the trial of Sir Philip Stansfieid for parricide, on 
which occasion the body had also been buried, but for 
a short time. Certain suspicions arising, it was disin- 
terred and examined by the surgeons, and from a variety 
of indications, no doubt remained that the old man had 
been murdered, nor that his son was guilty of his death. 
When the body had been washed and arrayed in clean 
linen, the nearest relations and friends were desired to 
lift it, and replace it in the coffin; and when Sir Philip 
placed his hand under it, he suddenly drew it back, 
stained with blood, exclaiming, " Oh, God ! " and letting 
the body fall, he cried, " Lord have mercy upon me !" and 
went and bowed himself over a seat in the church, in 
which the corpse had been inspected. Repeated testi- 
monies are given to this circumstance in the course of 
the trial; and it is very remarkable that Sir John 
t)alrymple, a man of strong intellect, and wholly free 
from superstition, admits it as an established fact in his 
charge to the jury. 

In short, we are all, though in different degrees, the 
subjects of a variety of subtle influences, which, more or 
less, neutralize each other, and many of which, therefore. 
we never observe; and frequently when we do observe 
the effects, we have neither time nor capacity for tracing 
the cause; and when in more susceptible organism 



CONCLUSION 495 

rich effects are manifested, we content ourselves with 
referring the phenomena to disease or imposture. The 
exemption, or the power, whichever it may be, by which 
certain persons or races are enabled to handle venomous 
animals with impunity, is a subject that deserves much 
more attention than it has> met with; but nobody thinks 
of investigating secrets that seem, rather curious than 
profitable; besides which, to believe these things, implies 
a reflection on one's sagacity. Yet, every now and then, 
I hear of facts so extraordinary, which come to me 
from undoubted authority, that I can see no reason in 
the world for rejecting others that are not much more 
so. For example, only the other day, Mr. B. C, a 
gentleman well known in Scotland, who has lived a great 
deal abroad, informed me, that having frequently heard 
of the singular phenomenon to be observed by placing, 
a scorpion and a mouse together under a glass, he at 
length tried the experiment; and the result perfectly 
established what he had been previously unable to 
believe. Both animals were evidently frightened; but 
the scorpion made the first attack, and stung the mouse, 
which defended itself bravely, and killed the scorpion. 
The victory, however, was not without its penalties; for 
the mouse swelled to an unnatural size, and seemed in 
danger of dying from the poison of its defeated antago- 
nist, when it relieved itself and was cured, by eating 
tjae scorpion, which was thus proved to be an antidote 

h its own venom; furnishing a most interesting and 

.remarkable instance of isopathy. 

There is a religious sect in Africa, not far from 
Algiers, which eat the most venomous serpents alive, 
and certainly, it is said, without extracting their fangs. 
They declare they enjoy the privilege from their 
founder. The creatures writhe and struggle between 
their teeth; but possibly if they do bite them, the bite 
is innocuous. 

Then, not to mention the common expedients of 
extracting the poisonous fangs, or forcing the animal by 



496 CONCLUSION. 

repeated bitings to exhaust their venom, the fact seems 
too well established to be longer doubted, that there 
are persons in whom the faculty of charming, or in 
other words disarming serpents, is inherent, as the 
Psylli and Marsi of old; and the people mentioned by 
Bruce, Hasselquist, and Lempriere, who were them- 
selves eye-witnesses of the facts they relate. With 
respect to the Marsi, it must be remembered that 
Heliogabalus made their priests fling venomous serpents 
into the circus when it was full of people, and that 
many perished by the bites of these animals, which the 
Marsi had handled with impunity. The modern 
charmers t )ld Bruce, that their immunity was born with 
them; and it was established beyond a dodbt, during 
the French expedition into Egypt, that these people go 
from house to house to destroy serpents, as men do rats in 
this country. They declare that some mysterious instinct 
guides them to the animals, whom they immediately 
seize with fury, and tear to pieces with their hands and 
teeth. The negroes of the Antilles can smell a serpent 
which they do not see, and of whose presence a Euro- 
pean is quite insensible; and Madame Calderon de la 
Barca mentions, in her letters from Mexico, some 
singular cases of exemption from the pernicious 
effects of venomous bites; and further relates, that in 
some parts of America, where rattle-snakes are ex- 
tremely abundant, they have a custom of inoculating 
children with the poison, and that this is a preservative 
from further injury. This may or may not be true; but 
it is ao much the fashion, in these days, tc set down to the 
account of fable everything deviating from our daily 
experience, that travellers may repeat these stories for 
ages, before any competent person will take the trouble 
of verifying the report. However, taking the evidence 
altogether, it appears clear that there does exist, in 
some persons, a faculty of producing in these animals 
a sort of numbness, or engourdissement, which renders 
them for the time incapable of mischief; though of the 



CONCLUSION. 497 

nature of the power we are utterly ignorant, unless it 
be magnetic. The senses of animals, although generally 
resembling ours, are yet extremely different in various 
respects; and we know that many of them have one 
faculty or another exalted to an intensity oi which we 
have no precise conception. Galen asserted, on the 
authority of the Marsi and Psylli themselves, that they 
obtained their immunity by feeding on the flesh of 
venomous animals; but Pliny, Elian, Silius Italicus, 
and others, account for the privilege by attributing it 
fco the use of some substance of a powerful nature, with 
which they rubbed their bodies, and most modern 
travellers incline to the same explanation; but if this 
were the elucidation of the mystery, I suspect it would 
be easily detected. 

It is observable that in all countries where a secret 
of tins sort exists, there is always found some custom 
which may be looked upon as either the cause or the 
consequence of the discovery. In Hindostan, for ex- 
ample, in order to test the truth of an accusation, the 
cobra cappello is flung into a deep pot of earth with a 
v ing, and if the supposed criminal succeeds in extracting 
the ring without being bitten by the serpent, he is ac- 
counted innocent. So the sacred asps in Egypt inflicted 
death upon the wicked, but spared the good. Dr. 
Allnut mentions that he saw a negro in Africa touch 
the protruded tongue of a snake with the black matter 
from the end of his pipe, which he said was to 
bacco oil. The effects were as rapid as a shock of 
electricity. The animal never stirred again, but stiffened, 
and was as rigid and hard as if it had been dried in 
the sun. 

It is related of Machamut, a Moorish King, that he 
fed on poisons till his bite became fatal and his saliva 
venomous. Ccelius Phodiginus mentions the same 
thing of a woman who was thus mortal to all her 
lovers; and Avicenna mentions a man whose bite was 
fatal in the same ^ay. 



498 CONCLUSION 

The boy that was found in the forest of Arden, in 
1563, and who had been nourished by a she wolf, made 
a great deal of money for a short time after he was in- 
troduced to civilized life, by exempting the flocks and 
herds of the shepherds from the peril they nightly ran 
of being devoured by wolves. This he did by stroking 
them with his hands, or wetting them, with his saliva, 
after which they for some time enjoyed an immunity. 
His faculty was discovered from the circumstance of 
the beasts he kept never being attacked. It left him, 
however, when he was about fourteen, and the wolves 
ceased to distinguish him from other human beings. 

However my readers will, I think, ere now have 
supped full with wonders, if not with horrors, and it is 
time I should bring this book to a conclusion. If I 
have done no more, I trust I shall at least have afforded 
some amusement ; but I shall be better pleased to learn 
that I have induced any one, if it be but one, to look 
upon life and death, and the mysteries that attach to 
both, with a more curious and inquiring eye than they 
have hitherto done. I cannot but think that it would 
be a great step if mankind could familiarize themselves 
with the idea that they are spirits incorporated for a 
time in the flesh; but that the dissolution of the con- 
nexion between soul and body, though it changes the 
external conditions of the former, leaves its moral state 
unaltered. What a man has made himself, he will be; 
his state is the result of his past life, and his heaven or 
hell are in himself. At death, we enter upon a new 
course of life; and what that life shall be, depends 
upon ourselves. If we have provided oil for our lamps, 
and fitted on selves for a noble destiny, and the fellow- 
ship of the great and good spirits that have passed away, 
such will be our portion ; but if we have misused our 
talent, and sunk our souls in the sensual pleasures or 
base passions of this world, we shall carry our desires 
and passions with us, to make our torment in the other ; 
nr perhaps be tethered to the earth by some inex 



OONCLUSION. 499 

unguishable remorse or disappointed scheme, like those 
unhappy spirits I have been writing about; and that per- 
haps for hundreds of years ; for although evidently freed 
from many of the laws of space and matter, whilst unable 
to leave the earth, they are still the children of time, and 
have not entered into eternity. It is surely absurd to 
expect that because our bodies have decayed and fallen 
away, or been destroyed by an accident, that a miracle 
is to be wrought in our favour, and that the misers 
love of gold, or the profligate's love of vice, is to be 
immediately extinguished, and to be superseded by 
inclinations and tastes better suited to his new con- 
dition ! New circumstances do not so rapidly en- 
gender a new mind here, that we should hope they 
will do so there: more especially, as, in the first place, 
we do not know what facilities of improvement may 
remain to us; and in the second, since the law, that 
like seeks like, must be undeviating, the blind will 
seek the blind, and not those who could help them to 
light. 

I think, too, that if people would learn to remember 
that they are spirits, and acquire the habit of conceiving 
of themselves as individuals, apart from the body, they 
would not only be better able to realize this view of a 
future life, but they would also find it much less diffi- 
cult to imagine that, since they belong to the spiritual 
world, on the one hand, quite as much as they belong 
to the material world on the other, these extraordinary 
faculties which they occasionally see manifested by cer- 
tain individuals, or in certain states, may possibly be 
out faint rays of those properties which are inherent in 
spirit, though temporarily obscured by its connexion 
with the flesh; and designed to be so, for the purposes 
of this earthly existence. The most ancient nations of 
the world knew this, although we have lost sight of it, 
us we learn by the sacred books of the Hebrews. 

According to the Cabbalah, " Mankind are endowed 
by nature, not only with the faculty of penetrating into 



500 CONCLUSION. 

the regions of the supersensuous and invisible, but also 
of working magically above and below; or in the worlds 
of light and darkness. As the Eternal fills the world, 
sees, and is not seen, so does the soul — N'schamach — 
fill the body, and sees without being seen. The soul 
perceives that which the bodily eye cannot. Sometimes 
a man is seized suddenly with a fear, for which he 
cannot account, which is, because the soul decries an im- 
pending misfortune. The soul possesses also the power 
of working with the elementary matter of the earth, 
so as to annihilate one form, and produce another. 
Even by the force of imagination, human beings can 
injure other things; yea, even to the slaying of a man. 
(The new Platonist, Paracelsus, says the same thing.) 
The Cabbalah teaches, that there have in all times 
existed men endowed with powers, in a greater or less 
degree, to work good or evil ; for to be a virtuoso in 
either, requires a peculiar spiritual vigour; thence, such 
men as heroes and priests in the kingdom of Tumah — 
(the kingdom of the clean and unclean.) If a man 
therefore sets his desires on what is godly, in proportion 
as his efforts are not selfish, but purely a seeking of holi- 
ness, he will be endowed by the free grace of God with 
supernatural faculties: and it is the highest aim of 
existence, that man should regain his connexion with 
his inward, original source, and exalt the material and 
earthly into the spiritual. The highest degree of this 
condition of light and spirit is commonly called the 
holy ecstasy," which is apparently the degree attained 
by the ecstatics of the Tyrol. 

I am very far from meaning to imply, that it is our 
duty, or in any way desirable, that we should seek to 
bring ourselves into this state of holy ecstasy; which 
seems to involve some derangement of the normal rela- 
tions betwixt the soul and body; but it is at least 
equally unwise in us to laugh at, or deny it, or its 
proximate conditions, where they really exist. It ap- 
pears perfectly clear, that, as by giving ourselves up 



CONCLUSION. 50} 

wholly to our external and sensuous life, we dim and 
obscure tlie spirit of God that is in us, so by anni- 
hilating, as far as in us lies, the necessities of the body, 
we may so far subdue the flesh as to loosen the bonds 
of the spirit, and enable it to manifest some of its in- 
herent endowments. Ascetics and saints ha^e frequently 
done this voluntarily, and disease, or a peculiar consti- 
tution, sometimes does it for us involuntarily. It is 
far from desirable that we should seek to produce such 
a state by either means, but it is extremely desirable 
that we should avail ourselves of the instruction to be 
gained by the simple knowledge that such phenomena 
have existed and been observed in all ages; and that 
thereby our connexion with the spiritual world may 
become a demonstrated fact to all who choose to open 
their eyes to it. 

With regard to the cases of apparitions I have ad- 
duced, they are not, as I said before, one hundredth 
part of those I could have brought forward, had I re • 
sorted to a few of the numerous printed collections that 
exist in all languages, 

Whether the view I acknowledge myself to take of 
the facts be or not the correct one, whether we are to 
look to the region of the psychical or the hyperphysical 
for the explanation, the facts themselves are certainly 
well worthy of observation; the more so as it will be 
seen that, although ghosts are often said to be out of 
fashion, such occurrences are, in reality, as rife as ever; 
whilst, if these shadowy forms be actually visitors from 
the dead, I think we cannot too soon lend an attentive 
ear to the tale their re-appearance tells us. 

That we do not all see them, or that those who pro- 
mise to come do not all keep tryst, amounts to nothing. 
We do not know why they can come, nor why they 
cannot; and as for not seeing them, I repeat, we must 
not forget how many other things there are that wa 
do not see; and since, in science, we know that there 
are manuestations so deiicate that they can only be 



502 CONCLUSION. 

rendered perceptible to our organs by the application 
of the most delicate electrometers, is it not reasonable 
to suppose, that there may exist certain susceptible or 
diseased organisms, which, judiciously handled, may 
serve as electrometers to the healthy ones? 

As my book is designed as an inquiry, with a note 
of interrogation, I characteristically bid adieu to my 
readers. 

c. c. 



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